Paradise Blues
by WargishBoromirFan
Summary: Postanime: Blue Yaiden wouldn't exactly call Freeze City paradise, but she's content with her life. She'll even tolerate her brother's secretive boyfriend. But when Toboe finds a giant stray "dog," nothing will ever be the same. Blue/Hige Toboe/Tsume
1. Prologue: Reincarnation's Joke

A/N: This fic is a post-series follow-up to "Shots in Paradise" and "Tougher Than Leather." If you haven't read them, you should be able to follow along anyway, provided you've seen the end of the anime, but those sister stories establish the connections that will be seen later in this fic.

I don't own Wolf's Rain, and that's the truth. Extra points to the readers who can recognize either inspiration for "Sheila." (Hint: one's the same as that for the late Franklin of the light red hat, and the other has to do with Bruce, alcohol, and philosophy. But certainly not pooftahs.)

Dedicated to our own overengergetic Franklin, and the stories he left behind. Thanks to Words without for the beta help!

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"_Reincarnation enjoys a joke as much as the next philosophical hypothesis."- _Terry Pratchett, The Truth.

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**Last Life - **

Darcia howled in pain as he stepped into the pool. He had _won._ Even with Jaguara's poison numbing his body, even with Cheza's blood further outraging his system, he had done it. He had been the first to step into the pool leading to paradise, and it raced to accept him, absorb him, in a flash of light.

He had lost so much to get here. He had seen too many horrors due to those wolves. He couldn't let Hamona see him as one of _them_. Despite the fiery pain of the light, Darcia fought the poisons within him enough to put one thought at the front of his mind: _leave the eye…_

He could not appear before Hamona with that wolf's eye. It was too deeply a symbol of all the blood on his hands. Could even the pool to paradise wash away that red taint?

Two trails of blood ran behind him into the pool, offering nutrients to the newly sprouting seedlings.

* * *

**2227 -**

"Any survivors?" the man asked. Wolf corpses were strewn out all around him. The beasts were coming too close to their paradise. He would never let them into Kyrios, but every winter the wild grew closer with the cold.

"None that I've seen," his companion shook his head sadly, then jerked at the sound of a soft whimper. "Wait…" The hunter followed after. There, amongst the bodies, was a small child, barely more than an infant. The boy's clothes and dark brown hair were in disarray, and a fist had been stuffed into his small mouth to stifle another sob or scream. Those dark eyes were widened in shock, leaking tears.

"Shh… it's all right. You'll never have to face another wolf again." He tried to untangle the child's other hand from the dark fur of the unmoving animal he had hidden behind. Its eyes were disturbingly bright blue and glassy, staring accusingly and unseeingly up at the hunters.

"With any luck," the second man muttered, scanning for any less-welcome stragglers. Despite his soft words to the frightened child, both men knew that the beasts would be back.

"Mama?" the boy asked piteously, looking at the blue-black fur that clung to his sweaty, trembling fingers.

The boy's savior shook his head, remembering the savaged bones beyond the settlement. The Yaiden place was an empty shell, now. "Poor kid."

* * *

**2259 -**

"What are we to do with the boy?" The youngster in question was sitting alone, halfheartedly turning a wooden block in his hand, apparently oblivious to his parents' conversation. "He never seems to want to make friends, and he hardly does anything on his own..."

His father at least took pity on him. "You worry too much, dear. Hubb's still a child. He'll find his purpose someday." In the floor, the brown-haired youngster turned the cube around his left ring finger before letting it fall to the floor, unheeded.

* * *

**2263 -**

The girl froze, torn between the desire to steal closer to the rare wild visitor to this neighborhood and the need for stealthy silence. If only she could get close enough, it would surely allow her to touch its iridescent plumage. She meant the bird no harm, after all. Drawn forward by the pulsing beat of its shining wings, she reached out a hand towards the tiny creature that hovered over her mother's meager garden plot. As quickly as it arrived, the hummingbird fled from view.

It was all right, though. She could be patient. She would wait a lifetime for a chance to touch such wild beauty, like a fairytale made flesh.

* * *

**2264 -**

The other pack had pushed quickly through his territory, but something had lingered behind them. Paradise was on everyone's mind. His mother had insisted that the wanderers were mad; that they were well rid of them; that paradise did not exist beyond pups' tales. Zali was not so sure, though. He wanted to run after them, to chase the scent of lunar flowers. His elder brother thought that the young gray wolf was more interested in chasing after a certain tan female that ran gypsy-like at the questing alpha's side. Zali wouldn't deny this, though he refused to confirm it either. Rather than risk an argument with his mother, he snuck off after a hunt, following the lingering scent-trail of wolves and flowers.

He found the pup shivering in the snow, no other intelligent life in sight. He wasn't sure that the pup counted as intelligent life, honestly; why would one so young be out alone in such weather? "Where do you think you're going, runt?" Zali asked, lifting the little lighter gray by the scruff.

"Paradise," the skinny little pup said, squirming between his teeth. "I saw a pack running after the lunar flowers and I want to go too."

"You're awfully little to go on your own, aren't you?" Zali relented and let the runt walk on his own four feet. Well, stumble along in his elder's footprints, at least.

"If you can do it, so can I." The pup was stubborn, and it wasn't like the young wolf could drop his unexpected companion off with a nearby family. Zali didn't know this territory.

"But I'm not traveling on my own," he informed the kid, picking up the pace. Cole's pack couldn't be too much further ahead…

"Oh?" the pup cocked his head. "Where are your friends?" The older gray wolf gave him a long stare over his shoulder, and the pup blinked; answering the question for himself.

Zali laughed at his expression. "Hurry up, runt."

* * *

**2261 -**

It was not simply the world against their love; it was basic biology. A female wolf went into heat in the winter so that her pups would be born in the time of easy hunting in spring. However, unlike their prey, a young wolf was not able to reap the benefits of spring's bounty alone. The expectant pack needed every free hunter it could get in order to properly nourish one litter of puppies, let alone two. For every female left suckling, there was one less hunter to pull down game. Less game meant that fewer pups would survive, and so nature enforced the rule: only the dominant pair breeds.

Great Spirit help them, they were most definitely not the dominant pair. He was too easy-going to stand up for himself, and while their pack mates respected her nose, she earned no friends with her secrets and calculations. Her pregnancy became one more thing that separated them from the rest of the wolves.

They could attempt to start their own pack, but she knew the odds of a dispersal pair surviving alone their first year were no better than one in seven, and adding even a single first-born pup into the equation dropped their chances to no better than one in twenty. Therefore, with no chance of continuing with the pack and little enough of surviving on their own, they turned to their last option: humans. There was a small dome not too far from their home territory, and she had learned to manipulate the boundaries well enough. The pair clung with all their will to their projections and attempted to blend in. Money was tight, even with every trick of thievery the pair knew, but they acted as human as they could. Their alphas mustn't find them or the pups.

Their pup. It was twisted when it came out, neither fully projecting a human image as she'd prayed nor quite resembling a wolf. She had insisted that she stay home for the birth, not quite trusting what the humans might think of a puppy that could not yet control its apparent form.

He had agreed, but he began to have second thoughts when he saw the way its legs twisted, smelled its sickly odor, felt its shallow chest rise and fall too quickly to be healthy for the lungs. "Let me get him to a doctor," he said, taking off with it and not even caring that he'd abandoned his own projection.

The maternity ward had been quiet. Most of the doctors had left; the few working night shift were too busy with other cases to notice a frantic canine with a dying bundle of fur in its mouth. An orderly screamed as she came face to face with the wolf, and he felt like screaming back. The shallow panting had stopped.

He snuck away, finally emerging into a room full of rows of bassinets. The nurse on duty had fallen asleep, and he padded in quietly so as not to wake her. A few of the babies awoke as he entered and peered within their small beds. It was not fair, the way these human infants cooed or gurgled while his own son, the one they had given up everything for, lay quiet in his arms. All these chubby, healthy children around him, and not another of his kind was alive in the room.

No… perhaps that wasn't true. In a bassinet simply labeled "#23," an infant blinked his round, almost red-brown eyes. They did not focus on the wolf, but the baby's nose twitched, and the projection was dropped. The fur beneath was the exact same shade of golden brown as his mate's was. It was destiny.

Laying the twisted shell in the infant's place, the wolf snuck out of the hospital and trotted triumphantly home to his mate. "Humans can accomplish all sorts of miracles, these days."

* * *

**2262 -**

They'd known Rebecca's family had a history of fertility problems, but that hadn't made them stop wishing for a houseful of children. The easiest way, in Quent's opinion, was to try for adoption. Rebecca had been a bit embarrassed about it at first, but Quent had more than one way of convincing her that being barren didn't make her any less of a woman in his eyes.

It was rather ironic, then, that by the time they had finally gotten everything ready to welcome their baby girl into the house, Rebecca announced that the little one the agency referred to only as Sheila wouldn't be coming alone. Well, the foundation was built. Quent was more than happy to throw open the door for the pitter-patter of little feet. He wouldn't mind an extra set.

* * *

**2274 -**

He was not really her grandson, but he reminded her so much of her Franklin that she had to take the poor boy in. He was affectionate and energetic and really livened up the whole household, perhaps more than her old bones could handle. She had jokingly bestowed the nickname Toboe upon him, for the small one certainly knew how to make use of his little lungs.

The boy was also fascinated with animals, although she had told him that her superintendent most empathetically did not allow pets. She sighed, but had not been overly surprised to see the dog. "Toboe?" she called for her errant ward, hoping to have a few quiet words with him before the super threw them to the streets. The last thing she saw was the beast running towards her, its mouth open in a wide doggy smile.

* * *

**2286 - This Life**

No one had been there when he had awakened. No mother had nursed him. His first liquid was blood. No teacher had guided his path. His purpose had always been clear. No prey demonstrated for him the need for silent, patient waiting. He remembered what came from impulsive pride. No brother had told him tales of paradise. He knew the tales already. No alpha taught him his place in the pack. His pack, - human, flower, and wolf alike, - had been scattered with their deaths. No father showed him how to hunt. He fought and killed instinctively. No human attempted to curb his wildness. He would slaughter any that tried.

Kiba had opened paradise, but Tsume had been wrong. The white wolf had not done it alone. The voice in his head was no more than a half-remembered echo. He wanted it back. The wolf rose and began to run.


	2. The Streets of Freeze City, Part 1

A/N: I don't own. Beware of swearing, slash, and eventual violence. We're just setting the pot on the boiler, here, folks, and I haven't even finished this bad boy... Thanks again to Words without for the beta!

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**Paradise Blues: Part I - The Adopted Stray**

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The first thing I heard as I stepped out of the grocer's shop was the scrabble of long nails against the wet concrete. An irritated motorcyclist honked his horn as traffic screeched to a standstill. Given all those cars on the road, he couldn't have been going very fast to begin with, but the combined din was enough to startle the remaining crows perched soggy on the streetlamps into another wheeling, panicked flight.

I sniffed the air more deeply. No spilled blood about, save from the cuts of red meat in my plastic grocery bags, and the familiar smog of unwashed humanity and old city waste was thick in the rainy air, but I thought I caught a whiff of something sweet and comforting that I could not quite identify…

I also smelled sausage grease. I readjusted my bags, opened my umbrella, and pushed through the straggling crowd towards my fiancé. Sure enough, Hige had been waiting at the street corner with a half-eaten hot dog held guiltily in his hand. No, I decided upon a longer look, that expression wasn't guilt. He wasn't looking into my eyes, and he wasn't watching for anything I could see, but he was staring after something. "What's wrong?" I asked, taking the hot dog from his unresisting fingers. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

"I think I did." Hige shook himself off, sending the water on his raincoat flying in every direction. Apologetically, he reached for some of my newly bought shopping bags to hang about the paper sack from the bakery that he was cradling. "That's why I try not to shop on an empty stomach."

"Just don't forget that you _are_ still on a diet." I poked my husband-to-be lightly in the stomach with the waxy hot dog wrapper before kissing him.

"Well, since I've already started eating it…" he wheedled, reaching for the bun.

"We'll give it to Toboe," I finished. "My brother doesn't eat enough." Hige gave a theatric sigh, but didn't argue, allowing his hand to clasp my arm in place of the bun.

"You think Tsume ever feeds him?" he asked, watching for a break in the unyielding line of cars. I didn't blame whoever it was for just running through earlier. With so many commuters going forty miles an hour in bumper to bumper traffic, you can't always trust the "walk" signs to do you much good around this city.

"Oh, I'm sure he does when he can." My little brother's boyfriend was kind to him, certainly, but the man was trouble walking the earth. Tsume usually showed up to pick Toboe up or drop him off wearing torn leather and riding a motorcycle, avoided questions about his line of work, and wasn't quick to tell me or Pops where they were off to, much less invite us along for any of their outings. Hige was pretty certain that Tsume was a wanted criminal of some sort. It wouldn't surprise me. Toboe had brought home stray kittens and baby birds to nurse back to health when he was little. Now he was trying to make a house pet out of a grown wolf.

Well, if my overly trusting baby brother found himself in over his head, Pops, Hige, and I would bail him out. We didn't care if we had to take on the biggest gang in Freeze City. Tsume knew that, and I think that's part of why he loves my brother. Not every orphan is as lucky as we were to get a second chance at family life, but Toboe certainly would never let the love Pops showed us end with him.

I used to wonder sometimes, what made an old mercenary like Pops adopt such a pair of wildly different kids as us, but the longer I've been in the business, the more I appreciate having Toboe around. Pops always said that I brighten his days by helping him so much with his work, but it's always been Toboe who keeps us smiling and remembering what the good in this world is worth. I can't say I'm happy that Tsume is stealing my brother away, but he probably needs the runt more these days. Pops and I have each other's backs, and even if Hige would overeat to forget the stresses of working for the nobles if I'd let him, my beloved, too, knows how to keep me grounded. Besides, Toboe may look like a runt, but when it comes to holding on to those he loves, I've not met anyone with a stronger grip.

_Have I?_ That strange scent, foreign yet familiar, laced with flowers and wild animal, drifted through the back of my memory, sending my subconscious on a quest for something that I wasn't sure existed.

"Weren't they supposed to meet us here?" Hige asked, peering out into the rainy back alleys across the street. "It's getting close to dinnertime."

"It's three o'clock. We're not going to miss supper." I elbowed him lightly, breaking his grip on my arm and tossing the remains of the hot dog in the nearest trash can.

"Hey! There are starving kids out there who might have appreciated that," Hige grumbled.

"It's gotten soggy. I'm sure some crow will appreciate it anyway once it digs it out of the garbage. Meanwhile, I think I can find you something better to eat." A crow, or possibly a stray dog. I'd heard rumors of coyotes infesting the city recently.

Hige took my arm again. "You win. The fact that you can even make that healthy junk taste good means that you usually do, I guess."

"It's good to know why I'm appreciated." I wrapped my arm about his and leaned closer with the umbrella, scanning the streets. We hadn't gotten a specific time from the boys, but even if Tsume wasn't one to keep appointments, Toboe would do his best to meet us here. At least, as long as he didn't find himself trying to fix a crisis…

A familiar red motorcycle wove its way through traffic, barely leaving three coats of paint between vehicles during lane changes and not bothering with the turn signal. Its passenger - its lone passenger, the protective big sister in me couldn't help but point out suspiciously - pulled over once he'd sighted us, yanking off his gray helmet and ignoring the curses the wronged motorists hurled in his direction. "Toboe's not with you?" he asked, returning Hige's challenging stare ounce for every ounce of disdain.

"Hello to you, too, Tsume," my fiancé said, stiffening at my side.

"Hige," the white-blond man grunted, and then turned to me for an explanation.

"We haven't seen him. What happened? When did you get separated?" I asked, my fingers tightening around the umbrella handle.

"The runt asked me to drop him off early. Said he had a surprise in store. Shoulda known it wouldn't be a good surprise in this part of town…" Tsume trailed off into a growl, his voice blending with the patter of the rain and the purr of his engine.

As the biker looked away, Hige let his anger loose. "Are you kidding? You know exactly how dangerous it can be out here and you let the kid run off by himself without letting anyone know where he was going? Just how crazy are you, punk?"

Tsume shrugged irritably. "You gonna help me look for him or just stand there complaining, chubby?" The tension was getting to be more solid than the paper bag Hige carried from our earlier stop at the bakery.

"You check the streets. Tell us where you saw him last and Hige and I will look down the back alleys. You want this side of the street, honey?" I asked.

"You sure it's wise to split up? That's how Toboe's gotten into trouble, you know," Hige said, squeezing my arm.

"I think you can handle yourself, Hige. We'll meet back here once we find him. Toboe grew up around me and Pops, so it may be that he's just fine and just lost track of the time. He's done it before." I ought to look for any likely stray cat habitats. Cats were probably the number one cause for various unexplained disappearances of my brother, although Tsume was a rapidly gaining second place.

"That's more 'justs' and 'maybes' than I want to be dealing with." Tsume pushed his motorcycle back into gear. "I dropped him off about a block from here, at the corner of Short and Fifth. He was headed towards you." With that, he rammed his helmet back on over his wet rat-tail and took off, weaving back in the other direction as soon as he could make the illegal U-turn to reconsider the trail. Hige and I ran after him.

_At least he's wearing a helmet this time,_ I thought to myself. _And that's probably the only leather jacket I've seen on him that wasn't ripped. Toboe would be proud_. Now I just had to hope that my brother was around in order to show that pride…

_He'll be fine_, I scolded myself. I had taught him more than I meant to about defending himself. It was simply a matter of finding him, and I thought I remembered seeing a pregnant stray somewhere around Fifth Avenue last week. I dodged through Tsume's fellow reckless drivers at the next street corner and headed for the alleyway. Sure enough, there was a cardboard box lined with a clawed old towel that smelled heavily of cat, but no sign of the queen. "Where'd you go, Toboe?" I muttered, wishing the rain would let up.

I checked further down the alleyway, pushing aside a stubborn moonflower that had taken root in the cracks of the concrete and seemed to be thriving simply to spite the rain and stone surrounding it. "Toboe?" I called. "Toboe!" The alley was empty.

I tried the next one down, with no more luck. The next three offered no response, either, nor even so much as a clue to my brother's location. At times like these, I really wished that Hige could get more of those wireless phones from the nobles, no matter how much of an annoyance his could be when they used it to call him back to the laboratory.

I was almost back to Short Street when I found the cap. It was bright pink, and designed after the fashion of an old-time newsboy's, but my auburn haired brother liked the silly thing. I picked it up, inhaling the scent of the sodden wool. No question lingered in my mind. "Hige! Tsume! He went this way!" I shouted, waving it above my head. My fiancé was quick to see it and run across the street, but Tsume passed us by twice. Between the helmet and the rain, it was hard to read his expression, but he seemed haunted as he drove by us, his golden irised eyes locked in front of him. I wondered if he would see Toboe if my brother crossed right in front of his bike.

"Throw those in the saddlebag," Tsume directed absently, dismounting once he'd pulled over and killed the engine. "That sack's about to rip." He pointed at our groceries and popped open the lock.

Hige did so, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Gonna take off with them?" he asked, although the question lacked the usual amount of biting sarcasm.

"Not unless somebody runs off with my bike," Tsume answered him equally, locking the saddlebag and running ahead.

"I don't know who's crazier: him, or your brother, for dating him," Hige told me, falling into a lope at my side.

"As long as they're crazy about each other, I'm not going to even try to venture a guess," I said. Tsume acted as if he knew where he was going, so I was content to follow and not waste my time tearing through back alleys for the moment. Beneath my umbrella, my brother's hat dripped a steady stream of water from the way I squeezed it between my fingers.


	3. The Streets of Freeze City, Part 2

A/N: This and Chapter 1 were initally part of the same chapter, but since the first few alternating bits from Tsume are so short, I figured I'd break it up into two pieces. They may have followed my plotbunnies home, but I can't keep the wolves or their companions. Quent's very firm on this point.

Thanks again to Words without for the beta!

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"Toboe!" Tsume called before me. "Where are you, runt?"

"Oh, Tsume!" a familiar voice called from the next alley. The tone was happily surprised and only slightly muffled. "Come look what I found."

I was going to have to kill him. I would have to hug my stupid teenage kid brother to death and then put a leash on him. It was the only proper response to hearing that cheerful tone of voice when my heart was still pounding too fast for as little as I had been running. From Hige's expression and the way Tsume stiffened and then momentarily sank into himself before continuing forward at a slower pace, I would likely have help in this course of action.

"Careful, they're a little nervous," Toboe added as we approached the mouth of the alley.

Nervous was an understatement. The same long haired ginger cat I'd seen eating out of a garbage can around Fifth Avenue was yowling warningly from the back of Toboe's shoulders, her fluffed-out tail lashing against the back of his head. I didn't blame her for being so on edge.

Besides the sudden appearance of three more strange humans, her "rescuer" was kneeling in front of a huge white dog. I might have thought it was some sort of german shepherd or husky mix, but if that was so, I didn't want to meet the other parent. Had it been standing, its back would easily be level with my waist, and this was not a fragile-looking creature. Its shoulders were as wide as the cat was long, and that was with its thick fur half-plastered to its underfed body. From its prone position, the dog offered us a wary wag of its tail.

"He hurt his leg trying to jump the fence, I think. He won't stand up for me." Toboe slowly extended a hand and scratched the beast under its chin.

"You're going to get bitten, runt, if you haven't already gotten yourself scratched," Tsume said, taking another step forward. The cat hissed at him from the back of his boyfriend's neck. "Blue, can you get that thing?" he asked me.

I took a slow walk towards them, whispering comforting nonsense until the cat detached itself from my brother's collar. As I walked backwards away from the dog, she offered me a relived purr and lowered her hackles a bit, although she offered the giant white creature another hiss when she saw its ear twitch. "I guess we could look after this girl until her kittens are weaned, if she gets along okay with Git and Shu. But I don't know where we'd keep a dog, Toboe." Our father had been responsible for naming of the strays that had stuck around long enough to fall loosely under the definition of house pets, and Pop's philosophy was to call the cats what names they came running at.

Tsume looked between his boyfriend and the beast, both of whom were giving him their best big brown (or yellow, in the dog's case) eyed stare. "A lot of dogs don't like me, so don't think I can take care of him forever," he said, jerking off the helmet. "But I can at least get him to the vet and put some food down for him."

Toboe stood, catching him around the waist. "I got the best family ever," he said, reaching up and kissing Tsume's cheek.

Tsume ruffled his hair, squeezing his waist. "You're gonna scare the dog, runt. We'll get him on my bike, take him to get looked at, and see if anybody reported him missing. If he was trying to jump that fence, he was probably looking for something."

"Yeah," Toboe said, pushing his straight shoulder-length hair back into something resembling order and offering me and Hige a guilty look. "There's probably somebody who loves him worried sick about where he's gotten to."

I adjusted the cat and umbrella, setting the cap firmly on his head. "You dropped this," I said. "Don't forget your umbrella."

"Thanks, Blue," he said, reaching to pet the cat cradled in my arm.

"Gimme a hand, Hige," Tsume said, throwing his helmet back on and moving towards the dog.

"All right, but you get the biting end," my lover said, wiping the grease and rain off his hands onto his pant legs. "Geeze, this guy must weigh like a hundred and fifty pounds, at least," he grunted, struggling with the dog's rear. The animal whimpered, laying its ears back as it rose precariously into the air.

"It's all a manner of where you carry it," Tsume said, stepping forward and resting the snow white dog against his shoulder. Hige backed up, letting go of its bottom. The animal whimpered again, and then resignedly placed its blocky head on Tsume's shoulder, its ears pulled low and its eyes squinting against the rain. "'Fraid you're gonna have to catch up, runt. The bike will only carry two."

"That's okay," Toboe said, making sure the dog was secure and comfortable upon what was usually his own perch. "I'll walk home with Blue and Hige, and then we'll come help you get set up in time for dinner."

"After all, you've still got the groceries," Hige added. Toboe and I waved, and the other two managed at least a nod of acknowledgment before Tsume took off, a little slower and more carefully for the large weight across the back of his motorcycle.

"Is Pops all right?" Toboe asked, walking along the other side of Hige so as to fit all three of us under the two umbrellas.

"Yeah, he was just trying to balance the checkbook a little while we were out shopping," I replied.

"I should help him with that," Toboe murmured guiltily.

"Hey, you'll drive your old man to drink enough without taking away that last little pleasant hobby," Hige teased him. That had actually been one of the first tasks our father had passed to me and Toboe; Pops was good at adding two and two together, but he'd just as soon not look at our capture and injury rates in black and white. The first always seemed too low and the latter too high when they were distilled into ink. Enough of them and the level in the vodka bottle got too low, as well. Pops was never a mean drunk, but I didn't learn to drive until Hige volunteered to sit next to me in the death seat of his third-hand sedan and I still automatically looked for the nearest bus stop, even when we had my fiancé's old car available for long trips. Honestly, there were still times when I didn't trust my father to his own two feet.

"Well, I guess we'll have to interrupt him anyway. We may have to change the plan and eat at Tsume's if this rain keeps up." I tilted back my umbrella, watching for a break in the iron-colored clouds. The skyscrapers hemmed in the horizon, but there was no spot of blue sky that I could make out.

Toboe's eyes snapped anxiously towards me. "Er, shouldn't we ask him first? We haven't really had a chance to clean up, and I don't wanna embarrass him, but it's not as fancy as Pop's or the place you guys are moving into…" my brother trailed off awkwardly, brushing his hair back behind an ear and pulling his cap lower over his brow.

"It's okay," I said, offering him a small smile. "Nobody expects a young bachelor's pad to be spotless."

"I just don't want to impose; that's all." Toboe shrugged, looking at the puddles in the sidewalk.

I considered the cat nuzzled trustingly against me. She'd been quiet and fairly calm since we took her away from the dog in the alley. I wondered if Scram or Go Away would suit her better. "No, we don't mean to do so, either. We'll talk to him before we decide."

"As long as you're still making dinner. I've never tried Tsume's cooking, but I know Toboe's got nothing on you in the kitchen. No offense, kid," Hige said, reaching out to tap my brother's shoulder. Toboe ducked away, stomping through the largest puddle in the pathway he could reach.

"If you'd grown up around her, you probably would've never learned to cook much, either," Toboe replied. I counted myself lucky to be wearing high-shafted boots; the two of them would be getting into an all out splash war if they kept this up.

I shook my head and picked up the pace a little. "Sheesh, you guys act as if no one else will feed you," I laughed.

"Now you know that's not true. We act as if not one else can feed us _as well_ as you, and we know that to be true because we've tried to feed ourselves." Hige assured me with a small bow, the puddle battle temporarily forgotten.

"You ought to take notes, little brother. I seemed to have chanced upon the easiest way to wrap your man around your finger." I leaned in and kissed Hige on the cheek.

Toboe blushed slightly, his cheeks threatening to match his cap, if not the dark copper of his hair. "I've got my own ways."

"Whoah, let's leave it at that, shall we?" Hige held out his hands. "I'm happy you guys are happy and all, but there's such a thing as too much information."

Toboe flushed even deeper. "I'm learning how to fix his bike…" he said softly, pulling his umbrella handle to his chest.

"Is it running okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah; he's just showing me where all the belts and chains go and how to keep everything lubricated and how to make sure the screws go in all right and stuff." Toboe gestured vaguely with the umbrella between his hands, miming some arcane bit of mechanical knowledge.

Hige gave him a playfully pained expression. "Runt, dude, I think you managed to give me too much info about a bike. That takes some skill."

"Or a really dirty mind," I added, elbowing my boyfriend in the ribs.

He used the movement to catch me around the waist, pressing his wet slicker into my less waterproof coat. For all the softness in his arms and chest, I could feel the strength beneath when he held me like this. "You know you love it, Blue."

"I know there's some reason I keep hanging around you," I said, kissing him.

"Hey, speaking of too much information!" my brother said, covering his face with his free hand.

"Sorry, kid, but your sister is a fox. We're engaged. This sort of thing tends to happen without warning," Hige said, returning my earlier kisses. Toboe rolled his eyes, racing ahead towards my father's apartment.


	4. The Nature of the Beast

A/N: From here out, with possibly the exceptions of a few honkin' huge chapters that get divided into two parts, the narration flips between first-person from Blue and third-person from another character every other chapter. It should be easy enough to keep up with the Tsume parts; just look for music references. I don't own them. Words without gets props for the beta.

* * *

"So, you gonna tell me who you are?" The pale haired man kept his voice low enough to be barely voluble over the traffic, keeping his golden eyes on the road in front of him. He did not sound as if he expected his listener to have any difficulty hearing him.

"You already know, Tsume." The creature behind him flicked a white ear, shaking off an irritating drop of rain.

"Let's pretend I don't. What are you here for?" The light changed, and the red motorcycle lurched into gear, flying around a truck before it had passed the intersection.

"The same thing I've always been here for." The beast stretched out its neck and let the wind play with its tongue, luxuriating in the feel of speed without need for body movement. "Cheza, and paradise."

Unseen by the speaker, Tsume's eyes widened at the last word. "Paradise, eh?" he asked with studied indifference.

"I thought we'd opened it. Here we are, all together again but for Cheza." The animal whimpered slightly at the last word. "You really don't need to take me to the vet, by the way."

"They might wonder about a wolf," Tsume agreed.

"Especially if he's bringing in another one."


	5. Faithful as a Pussycat

A/N: I don't even own the cats. Names have been changed to protect the guilty, but they're based on a couple of real characters at the kennel. Wolf's Rain and all other characters belong to Bones. The beta job is courtesy of Words without.

* * *

"Hey, Pops! We're home!" I called, letting the cat down and shaking off my umbrella. Shu came to investigate the new arrivals, rubbing circles around our ankles in case anyone - Toboe, in particular - had brought treats home for him. The ginger cat hissed, retreating at speed beneath the sofa, only to find herself face to face with Git. The orange tabby snarled right back at her, swiping at her tail as she came running back to me, leaping over Shu's head for my shoulders.

"Looks like they're gonna be fast friends," Hige commented archly.

"Don't let Git fool you. He was just as mean to Shu when he first arrived, and they get along fine now." I gently pried the ginger's claws out of my coat and stepped over the chubby tuxedo, who decided to ignore us in favor of Toboe.

"As long as everybody remembers who's the boss of this household," Hige added with a laugh, reaching to take my coat.

"Hey, Blue. Everything go all right?" Pops peered around the kitchenette door, a small metal flask in one hand.

"Yeah, Toboe just picked up another one," I told him.

"'Nother boyfriend?" Pops asked, swirling the fifth of vodka.

"A cat!" Toboe corrected, hopping up with Shu as if he'd been scalded. "You know Tsume and I have been together for two months now, Pops. I wouldn't desert him; especially not after today."

"Your funeral, son," our father said with a shrug. "But you tell me when you need the shotgun. Do I wanna know what he did, Hige?" Pops asked his strongest supporter on the Tsume issue and took a preparatory pull on the flask.

"The cat wasn't the only thing we found out there today," Hige explained. "There was a big dog out in the alley with its back leg all busted up. Tsume took it home to look after it."

Pops smiled at that. "Good for him. Wouldn't mind a good-sized dog around, but there ain't enough room in this place. Especially not with all these cats comin' and goin' all the time."

"At least Shu's as loving as nearly any dog I've met," Toboe said, scratching the purring animal in question behind his torn black ears.

"And Git makes a pretty good attack cat," Hige added, watching as the tabby emerged from the depths of the couch's underbelly at the sound of his favorite person. Git had never been particularly loving, even to Toboe, and Hige still bore scars from his first encounter with the orange demon, but Pops and Git got along as well as any two grumpy old men might. If I didn't know my father well enough to know that he refused to waste perfectly good alcohol, especially on a mangy stray cat, I might suspect that he let Git drink out of his shot glass sometimes. Certainly that might explain why the cat went tearing about and making a racket at four in the morning some nights, but then, cats did crazy stuff naturally.

"However," Hige continued, "Tsume also has our groceries. I guess we need to go pay him a visit."

"But this time, for Pete's sake, please leave your rifle at home, Pops," I said, setting the ginger queen on the top platform of the cat tree. She shivered, but curled up with her back to the wall, keeping a wary eye on the other two animals. "You know you can't take it on the bus, and I hate having to explain it to doormen."

"All right, Blue. Lemme go get dressed." Pops turned back towards his bedroom.

"What you've got on is fine," Toboe assured him, sensing trouble. "Tsume won't care."

"Nah, I wanna look my best when I drop by unannounced," Pops said, brushing cat hair from his sweater.

"Don't worry, Toboe," Hige reassured us, leaning back on the couch. "I don't think Sergeant Quentin Yaiden would shoot your boyfriend for free if he thought he might find a way to do it and get paid by the nobles while he's at it." Feeling tired already - more than a simple jog around the city ought to account for - and pretty certain that today wasn't going to be improving much at dinner, I rolled my eyes and settled down next to him, watching the new cat and letting Hige pull me against his shoulder.

"You don't really think Pops would shoot Tsume, do you?" my brother asked, resting on his heels and hugging his knees. Shu snuggled up against his side, rubbing Toboe's legs as if to remind him that the black and white cat had not yet received a treat. My brother stroked him absently, focusing on the floor.

"He'll only shoot him if we know that Tsume's done something seriously wrong," I promised him. "And then we'll probably try to settle it with a different method first."

"I heard waterboarding and removing fingernails were popular back when Sergeant Yaiden was in the army," Hige suggested. "Or if you guys need poison advice, you know I'm your man."

I smacked the back of his head. "You're not helping, honey."

"Aw, I was hoping this could be a family bonding experience. Including the new son-in-law when you guys finally snap and get Toboe away from the petty criminal…" Hige opened his hands as if to frame the mental scene. My brother's eyes widened further.

"Not helping, Hige," I repeated, lowering my voice as I crossed my arms.

"I was just kidding. You knew that, didn't you, Toboe?" My fiancé's question was met with awkward, accusing silence.

"You kids ready?" Pops emerged from the bedroom, straightening the lapels of his old army jacket. It fit him tightly enough that either all the alcohol had gone straight to his gut, or he'd put on his flak vest beneath it. Either way, this was not exactly encouraging.

"Let me grab my recipe book, just in case we decide to eat over there," I said, rising from the couch. I also grabbed my switchblade from the drawer, just in case Pops decided he would rather make trouble than eat. Sighing, I secured its strap beneath my sleeve and the cookbook under my arm, and then headed back to the living room to grab my coat on the way out.


	6. Still Can't Turn Away

A/N: Not mine. Words without did the beta.

* * *

The red motorcycle came to an abrupt stop in the windbreak between a decaying apartment complex and the dumpster behind it. The rain wasn't necessarily any more forgiving here, but for the unprotected passenger, its sting was lessened with the lack of movement. That still left other things stinging, however. "How'd you know?" Tsume asked, helping the injured wolf from the back of his bike.

"Same way you and Toboe knew what I was." Leaning heavily against his host, he tapped a pale hand to his nose.

Tsume shook his head. "Toboe didn't know what you are. He doesn't know what I am. Hell, I'm not even sure he's one of us."

"But you can smell it on him, and Blue and Hige, too. Your nose knows, even if they've forgotten what they are," the wolf said, pushing back wild black hair. "You and I always were the ones proudest of our heritage, weren't we?" he muttered with a smile that still managed to look wolfish, even upon a human façade.

"I don't remember," Tsume replied stonily. "I've told you that I remember nothing from that other life, if it even ever existed. I'll ask one more time: who the hell are you?"

The wolf sidestepped the question. "Your nose knows. Strange, that you sought each other out so thoroughly if you didn't know. Three thousand people in this city, maybe as many as a hundred wolves, and yet, here we are, all five of us, and old Quent, too. Wonder if the Lebowskis would know where Cheza is…" Yellow eyes gone blue-green looked back towards the rainy streets as Tsume dragged the wolf to his door.

"Maybe I should take you to the vet's. You're talking crazy." Tsume stumbled under the wolf's weight as he struck out with his keys, questing for the lock.

A pale hand grasped his, firmly guiding the key to its destination. "It's Kiba," the wolf said. "You can trust me." Tsume just stared at the light and dark hands upon the lock and key.


	7. The Old Apartment

Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta.

* * *

"Tsume?" Toboe knocked on the door so quietly I was surprised that I could hear it over the noise of the street. The old tenement building looked shabbier every time I saw it, but the heavy steel door was still imposing enough. My brother's fist was muted against its solid, scratched metal. "Can we come in?"

Rain dripped from the broad brim of my father's fedora. Although both Toboe and I had offered to share our umbrellas, Pops preferred to keep his distance, surveying the building from just beyond the cracked concrete stoop, not too far from where Tsume's motorcycle had been parked and chained to the back of the low metal fence around the dumpster. Hige had always told me that finding a parking space could be a real bitch in this city, but I hadn't realized that the problem was so rampant that Tsume would risk leaving his beloved bike out here.

Hige's eyes flitted around the front of the tenement just as fast as Pop's. It was his first time here, and even Pops and I could count the number of times either of us had gotten to see inside the door on one hand. I couldn't say I blamed Hige for being a little jumpy. The neighborhood certainly wasn't what your average suburban-reared guy would consider friendly.

Still, I wondered if Pops was overreacting, or if I was putting too much faith in my brother's judgment. Either way, it was unnerving to see my father - my sensei who had taught me to fight and capture criminals, my boss whose instincts I trusted to get me out of dangerous situations time and time again - acting as if we were out on assignment when his eyes were straying to Toboe. I didn't remember Pops ever being this cold to Hige. Sure, they had been introduced under different circumstances than the way Pops had run into Tsume, and even my fiancé had been invited to accompany us to the shooting range, but even when Pops had his hunting rifle in hand at the range with the man that wanted to marry me right beside him, he had never turned that calculating expression that he was now affixing to Tsume's door upon Hige.

"Just stay there!" The voice was muffled, but I could hear the thump of the deadbolt and the clink of the door chain clearly enough. Tsume peered cautiously around the door, pulling it wide once he was sure that none of us were heavily armed. "Come on, runt." Tsume put a hand upon my brother's shoulder, steering him inside. He glanced behind him towards the interior worriedly, as if he had temporarily forgotten about the rest of us. I wondered how much of a terror that giant dog was going to turn out to be.

"Er, what about my folks?" Toboe asked, half bracing himself against the doorway as his boyfriend stepped back into the old apartment.

Tsume blinked, appearing to remember his surroundings. "Sure; why not? I could use more trouble around here."

Hige and I followed Toboe quickly enough through the door, but Pops stood his ground in the rain. "I take care of trouble, boy; I'm not in the business of creating it."

"So are you going to come in and face it or are you going to stand in the rain, old man?" Tsume leaned against the door, one hand still firmly gripping my brother's shoulder in a way that one might read as either protective or possessive. Toboe reached up to clasp it, his eyes flickering back and forth concernedly between the two men.

Pops adjusted his hat, taking a calculating step forward. "Wouldn't hurt you to show a little more respect for your elders if you're looking for a favor. That gray hair of yours ain't necessarily a sign of wisdom."

"I'm not sure yours is, either," the white-blond replied. My brother put his free hand on the door, although I wasn't certain whether he was insuring that it stayed open for Pops to follow us inside or getting ready to put something large, heavy, and metallic between the two men he loved most before they fought with anything more than words.

Pops settled the matter by marching through the doorway, the corners of his mouth twitching downwards as he stepped around Tsume and Toboe. They were still holding one another in a half-embrace, their knuckles too pale for comfort. Tsume let go of the door and took hold of my brother's hand, letting the metal monstrosity slam back into place. The simplest of the locks clicked into place once the door had shut, and Tsume slammed the deadbolt home as well with his elbow, not letting go of Toboe. Only the chain clinking forlornly against the doorframe remained unlatched. The atmosphere was heavy in the small apartment, and it was not from the storm outside.

"Er, so… who's hungry?" Hige asked, scratching the back of his head as he tried to defuse the tension. "Blue, why don't we go sort through the groceries and let the rest of you settle in?"

"Works for me," Pops said, his eyes still focusing primarily on Tsume, only looking away to scan the surroundings for potential weaponry. I knew that look. Pops was on assignment in his own mind, and this certainly wasn't a government approved capture he was aiming for.

"How's the dog?" I asked, holding against Hige's frantic tug for a moment longer. I didn't want to be there when whatever my father was planning for Tsume went down, but I'd made a promise to my little brother and I didn't intend to leave him in the middle of this. Hopefully, a little common ground might be enough to snap Pops out of it.

"Under observation," Tsume said tacitly. So much for talking through our differences.

"Do you think he's going to be all right?" This line of conversation might not exactly calm my brother, but at least it might give Pops and Tsume something besides themselves to concentrate on.

"I think his leg will heal okay, at least," the golden eyed man reported dutifully.

That earned him a smile from Toboe. "That's a relief," my brother said as Hige and I retreated to the dripping sink, battered-looking stovetop, and small, mostly empty fridge that passed for a kitchen. "Is everything else okay?"

"The dog was just acting strange, was all. He's being watched." Tsume sounded uncomfortable about sharing any more on the subject. "I did get an owner's name, I think, but I don't know where we could locate this 'Cheza'…"

I froze, barely taking in the sound of the paper bag falling from Hige's hands. Cheza… I'd heard that name before; it was related to something important, but I could not remember where for the life of me. Perhaps that had been my birth mother's name; the fragment of memory was so blurred and yet so gut-wrenching that it had to have come from some part of my early childhood that I had thought I had buried in my subconscious. I had never seen any records of her name to confirm or refute my suspicions. Pops and Momma had adopted me anonymously through a third party and any records that might once have existed of my parentage had gone up in that fire years ago. I had lost much more important things to those flames, but that didn't mean that curiosity didn't strike me every now and then…

"Cheza?" my brother asked, a hint of wonder in his voice. "That's a pretty name."

"Smells like flowers," Hige murmured beside me.

Somehow I did not think he was talking about anything in the cramped apartment. My fiancé had a better sense of smell than any other person I've met, but I doubted that even his powerful nose could detect something floral beneath the scents of dust, motor oil, and wet dog that hung heavily throughout this place. The kitchen added its own odors of expired and burnt food, as if my brother had indeed attempted cooking while he was over here. "What?" I asked, wondering if I'd heard Hige right.

He offered me a sheepish half-grin, rubbing his nose as he picked up the fallen grocery bag from the cracked gray pseudo-tile floor. "Nothing."

"Least the dog'll be in good hands," Pops said, removing his fedora and stalking about the room with it in his fist. Perhaps it was just as well he wasn't trying to sit down; there was only one small, battered brown sofa and two kitchen stools available, both of which wobbled and rocked whenever Hige put a foot on their rungs to look into the higher cabinets for cooking utensils. Still, it would have made me a little calmer to see my father making some effort at social niceties. He was never wonderful at them - I suppose Toboe and I had to pick up our sometimes quite abrupt mannerisms from somewhere - but normally, Pops knew when and where he needed to scout. He didn't make such thorough checks of every bar or shop we went to. A grumpy, occasionally verging on paranoid, old mercenary didn't make too many friends, but I never remembered him combing any of their houses like this. Only on assignments… I thought with another shiver of worry.

"He is in good hands," Toboe insisted. Glancing over the counter that acted as a combination of room divider, kitchen table, and general short-term storage area, by the looks of it, I saw that at least he and Tsume had acquired a seat on the balding sofa, although neither looked at ease. My brother's left hand had strayed to the metallic bangles on his arm that he had received from his grandmother, one of the few physical reminders he had of his life before Pops. The muted clink of the cuffs rattling against each other like a snake's tail was a familiar sound; usually heralding the start of some new argument between my father and brother. Toboe had never been one to purposely irritate Pops much as a child, but not even our unassuming, friendly little gangly redhead could pass through the teenage years entirely without drama.

Another hand clamped over the bangles, stilling them to silence. "I know the vet. She's good at what she does."

"And how would you know a veterinarian?" Pops asked cynically. Tsume's apartment was not the cleanest, but it was free of cat hair. Despite the smell of wet fur, I hadn't even seen much sign of the dog yet, but then we had only found it today. For all I knew, Tsume had taken it straight to the vet's. That was probably the kindest course of action one could take with a wounded animal in such weather, anyway. I hoped the ginger cat was avoiding Shu and Git. They were up to date on all their shots, but Git was not shy about enforcing his dominance with claws or teeth, if necessary, and a closed door wasn't always as impenetrable a barrier as those who had never lived with a pair of determined cats might think. Our vet was further out of the city limits; it wouldn't hurt to ask Tsume where his was located in case of an emergency.

"Think all the strays come to you, old man?" Tsume asked, a hint of taunting laughter in his voice. "I have my contacts." There was an unintelligible growl from Pops, followed by the slosh of the half-empty bottle and the pop of the fifth's stopper.

"Tsume? Could you show us where the pots and pans are?" I called, hoping to separate them before the flask emptied.

"Second cabinet on the left of the stove, above your head. The big one's behind the lids. I wouldn't use the skillet, though," he replied without rising. Right where Hige had located them earlier, one cabinet over from a fairly nasty looking collection of knives in a locked drawer. I hadn't even thought to ask how my fiancé had pulled it open once I'd seen what was within it.

Unlike the pots, which looked dented and stained along their rims and bottoms, the knives gleamed at every edge. There were scratches along more than one serrated blade, but they had been kept clean and sharp. Not all of these looked to be cooking knives, and the six-inch long knife with a saw-toothed edge and a hole in the center of its width to keep it light was certainly no switchblade. Nor was the smooth-edged number, - no shorter than its mismatched mate in length, - with a spike opposite the cutting blade and a spiked, double-sided grip exactly the thing I'd generally use to trim the fat off the meat. Tsume might not know any great tailors, but he obviously didn't skimp when it came to certain suitably impressive looking and useful accessories.

I debated telling Pops about what I'd found. He was already jumpy enough, but if Tsume got wild, too… No. Telling would only increase the tension in the room. What I needed right now was some fresh meat to cut into and thoroughly tenderize. And cook—cooking would remind me to keep things civilized. We were safe here; this was no assignment.

Did Toboe know about the knife collection? Was there one missing? Argh, I was going to be as paranoid as Pops was one of these days. I pulled out pots for the vegetables and rice, and selected the least dented of the three baking trays to wrap in foil and place the steaks on. "Pops, I know you like yours medium-well, and Hige and Toboe like them rare." Pops grunted an affirmative, but the other two were strangely silent. "Tsume? How do you prefer your steak?"

"Doesn't matter," he replied, leaning back on the couch to watch as my father stalked around his apartment and Hige scrounged up enough plates and silverware for the group.

"He likes his rare, too," my brother informed me from his boyfriend's lap. Toboe's eyes were still on the bangles beneath their hands. "Just barely cooked."

"Only way I can get to the food before you and Hige eat it all," Tsume teased. Toboe's protests at this statement were cut off mid-sentence, and I felt a smile tug at my lips, even as Hige rolled his eyes at the two of them. Maybe we had some chance at a peaceful evening after all.

"It'll be okay, Pops," I murmured in an undertone as my father passed by the stove again during his endless patrol of the cramped apartment. "Sit down; you're making me nervous."

"Something ain't right about that boy," Pops muttered back. "It's not that he's queer, and it's not that we don't know him," he added hastily, recognizing my impatient expression for the warning it was. "You've noticed it too, Blue. He's too secretive, too dangerous." He shot another look towards the couch.

"He's not the type I'd have picked for Toboe, either," I admitted, turning on the oven. "But if they're happy, I'm not going to try to pull my brother away."

"Even for his own good?" There was a hint of wistfulness in my father's voice as his gaze flickered between Hige and the back of the couch.

"He's not Bruce," I reminded Pops, touching his arm. His fedora was crumpling in his grip. "Hige's not, either. We've got to love them for who they are."

Even if sometimes it seemed as if I'd always known Hige… Known his face, his laughter, the way his frizzy brown hair felt between my fingers even before we'd met… It wasn't possible, even if reincarnation worked the way more religious souls than mine always said it did. Hige was a year older than me, a year older than Bruce would be if he'd lived. At six and a half years younger than me, Toboe was a stronger candidate for a reincarnation theory, but there were too many differences between my brothers for me to ever believe such a thing to be the truth. Pops and Toboe and I needed each other, that's all. I had nearly convinced myself that the same went between Hige and me.

"I know that," Pops said shortly, threatening to start pacing once more. "But by blood or not, he's still my boy, and I'm not about to let him do something stupid."

I kept hold of his wrist as he edged towards the dividing counter. "Seems like you let me do a few stupid things at that age."

My father looked me in the eyes and seemed to deflate as I stared at him. "You're my big girl." He shrugged. "I shouldn't say it, but you were always tougher than both of your brothers."

"Please, sit down," I repeated softly. I released his arm, and Pops moved towards the stools, examining them both to attempt to figure out which one wobbled less. With the aid of some of the junk mail and old newspapers littering the table, he at last came to an uneasy truce with the one furthest from the oven. True peace with Tsume would take longer, but with Hige and Toboe to help fill in the gaps, my father's temper was set up to become a bit more stable than his seat.

I enjoyed snuggling with Hige, but I wasn't particularly eager to try to fit both of us on one rickety stool. I was even less eager to attempt to push Tsume over on the couch. The sofa was crowded enough with only two on it. Granted, Toboe had a way of spreading out his sharp elbows and pointy knees until one wondered how he had ever received the nickname "Runt," but there was surely no way to fit three people on that couch without making everyone hold their breath, let alone four individuals who generally liked their personal space.

Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I removed the tinned vegetables from the heat and pulled the last steak out of the oven. It didn't look quite as good as it might have if I'd had my own equipment, but for a half-hour preparation time on strange territory, I'd claim a victory when I saw it. "Food's up! Come and get it, guys!"

Like a pack of starving wolves, come they did. "Thanks, Blue," Hige said, dodging around me for the warmest cut of meat.

"Put that back; that one's for Pops," I ordered, replacing it with a larger, bloodier portion.

"Love you," he said, kissing my cheek.

"You're easy enough to please." I kept my eyes on the plate. Naturally dark skin was only so effective at masking excess blood flow when those around you knew you well.

"Can you go be pleased somewhere else?" my brother butted in, applying his bony elbows to maximum effectiveness. "The rest of us want to eat, too."

"And preferably keep our dinners down," Tsume added behind him.

"You have no room to talk," Hige said, grudgingly ceding prime access to the stovetop.

Tsume smirked, his yellow eyes straying low over Toboe's backside. "Trust me, I could talk." My little brother flushed to the tips of his ears, nearly missing his plate with the over-heaped serving spoon's worth of rice.

"But I don't want to hear it," Pops cut Tsume off from behind. "From either of you," he added, turning dark eyes on Hige. My father had left his hat on the stool as if to mark his place or to keep it within sight at all times. The coat peg located next to the heavy outer door was a bit overcrowded between my jacket, Toboe's cap and scarf, Hige's slicker, and Tsume's own coats, but a cynical part of me thought that that fedora would sooner be thrown into a burning fireplace than left unwatched in an unknown house. I suppose I should simply count it lucky that Pops was willing to show enough courtesy to take it off until it stopped dripping water all over the hard, uncarpeted floor.

"Er, since you cooked, why don't you take the couch, Blue?" my brother offered into the awkward silence that followed as Tsume, Hige, and Pops sized each other up around the stovetop.

"Don't eat on the bed, runt," Tsume told Toboe, absently leaning into his back.

"I wasn't going to," Toboe said in that quick, slightly wounded manner that assured those of us who knew him that he had been planning to do exactly that. "I wasn't even thinking about it." Large brown eyes stared up at Tsume like a kicked puppy, offering me a further indication that my brother was lying through his teeth. My baby brother might be very good at looking woebegone and needy, but we'd been quick to learn that this particular vision of innocence usually indicated anything but.

Even if Tsume was no more convinced by this act than I was, the pale haired man offered little resistance to the routine. Bumping gently against Toboe's shoulder, he led him to the rear of the shabby sofa, where they sank to rest against its threadbare back and balanced their plates upon the laps.

"Thanks, you two," I said, diffidently stepping around them.

"The stools came with the apartment," Tsume said, pointing towards where Pops sat with his steak knife. He was a fair hand with a quickly spinning blade, I noted uneasily. "I wouldn't trust them if I were you."

"I don't think they'll break or anything anytime soon," my brother argued, but Hige decided to squeeze in next to me. I couldn't blame him. Pops didn't seem to be up for much company at the moment, and though one would never think it to see Toboe and Tsume sprawled behind the couch, the cheap gray flooring didn't look particularly inviting, either.

Dinner itself was a quiet, rushed affair, the sounds of bumping elbows and clicking plates and silverware louder for the lack of conversation. "You think it's stopped raining yet?" Toboe offered, halfway through his plate. "I thought it looked to be letting up as we were coming in."

"Word on the street has it that it won't let up for another day," Hige said, polishing off his rice.

"'Word on the street' being the radio in that old junker of yours?" Tsume asked.

"My colleagues at work, actually," Hige informed him haughtily. "Though the news station confirmed it, yeah."

A snort issued from behind the couch. "Well, as long as we know who bought and paid for you."

"What's that supposed to mean? Just because I work for Lady Jaguara's lab doesn't mean I'd follow her blindly," Hige groused. Tsume would bring up every sore point he could think of, wouldn't he?

"Get your info from noble-owned stations, get your money from noble-owned labs, live in a noble-owned city… You tell me who owns you."

I sat my plate aside and turned around on the couch. "I do. Got a problem with it?"

I've never been as good as Toboe at the woebegone look, but more than one person has told me that the eyes I was nicknamed for can appear to cut straight through someone's heart, if I'm sufficiently annoyed. The white-blond held my stare, but kept his mouth shut. "Unless you have some other source, leave him alone, Tsume."

"He takes that?" I heard the pale haired man ask my brother in an undertone once I'd turned my back.

"Yeah, I'll take that," Hige said, wrapping an arm around me as we settled more comfortably into the old couch.

"And if anyone asks, you're mine," Toboe added to Tsume.

"Your family's weird, runt," Tsume observed through what I hoped was a mouthful of food, but he didn't argue.

"What I don't get is what good it'd do the nobles to mess around with the weather forecasts." My father had never been especially loyal to any particular noble, but he had never been one to drop a subject when he still had even the slightest chance of proving his point, either. That ability to pursue something so tirelessly was a great asset in the field, but when viewing Pops through the eyes of a daughter and not an employee, I really wished that my father would learn to give it a rest. The old man could be such a rabid wolverine at times.

"Don't know; I'm no lady's lapdog," Tsume replied. That was it: this man needed a muzzle. "What do they get out of everything else they do? Power, knowledge, wealth, extended life spans… and pretty much anything else they want. And you know how they get it: using the rest of us and tossing us aside."

"And you style yourself as some sorta anarchist Robin Hood to fight back, don't you, boy?" Pops summarized. "You never worry about who could get hurt in the process. Just another martyr, just another stone to get stepped on while you're on your way to freedom. I've seen rebels before, boy, and I've seen nobles die. The one who follows is just more trigger happy than the last; you can't fight 'em in the field." Pops took another pull on his fifth of vodka, and then shook the few remaining drops around to listen to them splash.

"Robin Hoods don't last," Tsume said shortly. There was a hint of weariness in his voice, and something almost resembling wistfulness. Perhaps I'd been seeing them together so much that I was unconsciously projecting one's traits onto the other, or maybe Toboe's dreamy optimism was starting to rub off on him, even if it was too late to make much difference.

It was kind of sad, knowing that this was the most Tsume had opened up to anyone in the family save Toboe and we'd done it all through poorly cloaked passive-aggression. Sure, we were on his home territory and he'd been fed, but I would have thought that I'd need more direction from Hige in a professional capacity and less from Momma's family recipes in order to get him talking.

I glanced over my shoulder to where the two of them lounged in the floor. Toboe picked absently at the remaining vegetables on his plate; Tsume's had been finished off and lain aside. The taller of the pair was staring off into the distance, not quite meeting my father's gaze. "Never claimed to be much of a hero," Tsume added quietly.

"That doesn't mean you're a villain." Toboe took one last bite of his greens before gathering up their dishes and standing up. "Ready for me to take your plate, Blue?"

"Thanks, Toboe," I told him, passing my plate onto the stack.

"Hige?" my brother asked.

My fiancé shook his head, waving Toboe on. "I'm gonna go for seconds, if there's any of that rice left."

"Not much," Toboe admitted. As short and skinny as he was, my brother could put away nearly as an impressive amount of food as Hige, even though Toboe still had yet to hit his growth spurt. That was teenage boys for you, I supposed. "There're still a few veggies though, I think."

"Well, no sense in having to pack up only a measly spoonful or two of leftovers," Hige said, rising from the couch.

The cramped old thing felt wrong without him. It was probably simply the way I'd shifted to let him up, but I didn't remember that spring poking through the thin padding and balding seat cover into my thigh when I'd first sat down. I rose as well, moving to help with the dishes to keep myself from pacing.

"Don't worry about these, Blue. You cooked, and I've got a better idea of where everything goes." My brother shooed me away from the sink.

He had picked up Pop's empty plate as well, although this had been completed in quick, awkward silence. The only thing that had been exchanged was a pair of searching, dark looks, and those had said more than enough. I'd never realized how well Toboe was able to mimic Pop's signature "I'm right and you damn well know it" expression, but considering how many people he's gotten it from, I suppose it shouldn't come as all that much of a surprise. I had picked it up quickly enough by the time I was half his age, mostly to be used upon my younger brother. But then, I never had much of a kicked puppy face to fall back on, so I'd had to get good at being obviously right quickly.

Toboe pushed up the sleeves of his bulky orange coat and red button-down, his bangles rattling against each other and the soapy dishes. _Everything?_ I wondered, remembering the cabinet's worth of knives once again.

Bah. The cramped, windowless apartment was making me crazy, and the sound of the metal cuffs wasn't helping. I was turning into my father, and being a female with no biological link, I hadn't even realized that that was possible. Feeling restive and exasperated with myself, I began to circle the apartment.


	8. Hear Him Howling Around the Kitchen Door

A/N: Bones owns, Words without betaed.

* * *

The wolf lounged on the bed, his nose twitching at the smell of cooking meat. Tsume had placed him on the end of the bed and ordered him not to move, as if the pure white canine had much choice in the matter. His leg would heal eventually, but it would be a slower process when he was trapped inside, without even a window to let in moonlight.

He wondered how Tsume stood the closeness of the small room, but considering the lack of personal touches about it, perhaps the pale-haired man didn't, either. There was a small, Spartan bed, a battered-looking nightstand littered with random items of dubious worth, and a few clothes tossed carelessly into a corner by the closet. It appeared as if someone had attempted to clean this bedroom not too long ago, but then the job had been abandoned as if it was not worth the effort. The room had been slept in, certainly. From the stale scents buried within the sheets, it had certainly been used. But Kiba was not so sure that it had been lived in.

The wolf twisted towards the headboard, burying his nose under the blanket in an effort to block out the waft of steak. Tsume had offered him some water, but food might have to wait until the others were gone. The tall, pale-haired man had been uncomfortable in the wolf's presence, keeping himself busy with tasks that kept him outside of the bedroom for as much as possible before the rest of the group's arrival. Kiba had asked to be reintroduced to Hige and the Yaidens, but Tsume had cut him off.

"They're not ready for this," the dark-skinned man said doggedly. "I don't want Toboe pulled into this."

"Not ready for what?" Kiba asked. "They are what they are. Wolves have always searched for paradise. This time, we might do it as a pack."

"Maybe we've already found it." The man turned at the light rap against the heavy door to the street. "Just stay there," Tsume commanded him, shutting the door to the bedroom and running for the entrance.

To Kiba's tired, wolfish ears, it sounded like growling and snarling beyond the bedroom door. Once he put aside the meat smell - a difficult task at which his rumbling stomach protested - and the older, cloying scents of sweat and leather and musk that permeated this room, the faintest hints of adrenaline and testosterone floated in from the main room, warning of an impending conflict between its occupants. _Were they fighting over food?_ Kiba wondered, flicking one ear towards the door.

There was the sound of heavy marching feet amongst the rattle of metal and ceramics. The rumbling, alcohol soaked voice that occasionally accompanied it was familiar to the white wolf, but he could not say that he remembered it as the sound of a pack member. The other three had accompanied him over, and the last of his ancient memories suggested that the man could have changed, but the scents of distress from Blue, Tsume, and Toboe in particular did little to support this theory. Even Hige smelled dangerous, though the fear smell upon him seemed to lessen when the bear-like old mercenary spoke.

Hige had betrayed them once, the wolf remembered suspiciously. It had been unknowingly, but it had left Hige with the wound that slowed him enough for their ancient enemy to claim his life. It had left them without Cheza.

It wouldn't do to separate the pack. Hige and Blue might once again have the knowledge and skill that led him back to Cheza. But the old man, Kiba decided, would have to go. The wolf flexed his injured leg, willing it to heal faster. Sleeping or waking, he had been running for too long to stop now.

Kiba pinned his ears back against the pain in his leg. He left them there when he heard the turn of the doorknob.


	9. Got to Get Away

A/N: Wolf's Rain belongs to Bones. Thanks to Words without for the beta.

* * *

"Where do you think you're going, Blue?" I hadn't even seen Tsume scramble to his feet, but he was at the door nearly before I was.

"The restroom," I responded quickly. Pops had not moved as fast as our uneasy host, but he, too, was at his feet by the time I answered. From the other side of the kitchen counter, Toboe and Hige raised their heads from their dishware. Hige had no real culinary reason to hang on to his knife for a second helping of vegetables, but it was in his hand nonetheless.

The white-blond blinked his yellow eyes slowly, revealing some hint of awkwardness, even if he was categorically opposed to ever appearing embarrassed. "That's my bedroom. The mutt's asleep in there, so be quiet while you're going through."

"I thought you said he was under observation," Pops said, setting down his hat on the counter.

"He is. I'm watching him," Tsume replied shortly, reluctantly letting go of the door. "I'm keeping him away from anybody he might hurt right now."

"And this vet of yours?" Hige set his fork down by the sink, touching Toboe's shoulder as he moved around the counter. My brother seemed numb to the contact, offering no movement or verbal response.

"Dr. Cole has dealt with this sort of thing before. She said to let him rest, for now." Tsume stuck his hands in his pockets, not looking directly at Toboe, Pops, or the door to the bedroom and bathroom.

My younger brother eventually found his voice, although it was cracking unevenly as he spoke. "How'd you meet Dr. Cole?"

"We grew up together. She and her husband have given me a hand a time or two when I need something done quietly," Tsume explained. Well, score one for my fiancé. Hige was just about to be proven right about Tsume's past, although exactly what the tall man would want done off the record was still another matter entirely. "Not that any of us are generally pleased about having it come down to that."

"Nobody likes being injured," Toboe said, allowing his tone to return to something more sympathetic. He left rest of the dishes to soak in the sink. "Can I see him? I won't wake him up if he's asleep."

Tsume shook his head warily. "We shouldn't go in there if we don't have to. He doesn't seem to sleep well."

"I'm sorry, but I have to," I said, firmly pushing open the door. The room was dark, and the bedding was rather rumpled. That was probably why I thought I saw something black on the bed before the dog raised its snowy white head from the sheets, turning to stare at us with haunted golden eyes. Maybe Tsume had left one of his old leather bomber jackets in that mess, too. It was dark; that was why, out of the corner of my eye, Tsume's white-blond hair had resembled gray fur for a fleeting second. I headed for the restroom, not looking back.


	10. Don't Mess with the Man on a Mission

A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta job!

* * *

"Hey, fella. How's your leg?" Toboe spoke in a quiet sing-song, slowly approaching the bed.

"I don't know that that's a good idea, runt," Tsume warned him. The wolf on the bed perked up his ears, wagging his tail as Toboe crept towards him, but Tsume was afraid of just what that welcoming posture might lead to.

"He looks like he needs some attention, don't you buddy?" Tsume tried to rein in his jealousy as the small redhead scratched the white wolf behind his ears. That was still his bed that Toboe was climbing into, even if the white wolf had moved from the foot of it. The creature moaned in happiness as those clever little fingers found the perfect spot, kicking his good back leg.

"Missed you, Toboe," the wolf said quietly over the thumping of his tail into the mattress. The hands in his fur stiffened immediately.

"Tsume?" the auburn haired youth asked uncertainly once he found his voice. Slowly, tentatively, the fingers began to shift through the fur, looking for a microphone, surgical scars, any hint of an explanation that would reassure Toboe's rationality, even if it meant facing the darkness that his family did their best to shelter him from seeing. There was nothing to find.

Tsume caught Toboe's wrist before the runt could dig up more questions than he was able to handle. There was no telling exactly how Toboe's imagination would fill in the gaps, but as long as his first concern was the white wolf, the boy wouldn't be asking certain dangerous questions about why Tsume wasn't quite so surprised by Kiba's abilities.

"I warned you." Tsume was looking at Toboe when he spoke, but the bitter words were meant just as much for Kiba. "Just let it lie. It's best if you don't ask."

"Another business thing, then?" Toboe's light brown eyes were cast down at the bed. Tsume hated having to hurt the boy, but it was better for Toboe if he didn't know all of what went on between the gangs and wolves of Freeze City. Tsume trusted his small companion, but the redhead had always been so open and naive, especially with his sister and father…

It was easy for Tsume to dismiss the old man and bright-eyed woman as insignificant threats, but he knew about the high powered rifle Quentin Yaiden often carried under a long trenchcoat and the knife Blue hid up her sleeve. Tsume had carried his own weapons that way for long enough to recognize the careful way his boyfriend's elder sister would hold her arm at her side, hand open and fingers tensing to catch a sliding object. And they had connections to the police, a double-edged sword where the white-blond gangster was concerned. The information could be useful, but he could never, ever allow himself to slip in front of them. Compared to that, Tsume's status as a hidden wolf seemed a minor detail.

"Yeah," Tsume said, deciding to leave it at that.

"I have to ask just one thing." Toboe's large eyes drew Tsume in against his will. He tried to turn away, but the runt always seemed to know how to get the best of him. "Was he like this… before I found him?" The hands in Kiba's fur hadn't moved.

"Always," the wolf said, offering Tsume an ironic gaze.

"Just shut up, Kiba," the pale haired man snapped. "We'll deal with your business later." He walked over to the bed and sat down next to Toboe, his eyes flickering between the two thin closed doors. The wolf's paw nudged at his back, but Tsume didn't relax until he felt a hand on his shoulder as well. They really were the cleverest little hands he had ever encountered, not only able to tell of forgiveness without unnecessary words, but to read his apology as well.


	11. No Peace to be Found

A/N: Well, I suppose I can claim Cher. (O., Warg's alternate penname, not Degre-Lebowski.) All thanks go to Bones who owns and Words without who betaed.

* * *

I splashed more water on my face and shoved my bangs from my eyes. From the continued motion towards the crown of my head, I guessed that they were standing nearly straight up, at least when they didn't flop right back into my face. I must have looked a mess, although there was no mirror in the bathroom to confirm it.

Fur. What a silly fancy. The close crop Tsume wore was about the length of a shorthaired dog's, but even with his "tail," it no more resembled fur than Hige's hairstyle, or Pop's, or mine, for that matter.

I resolved that it was definitely time for me to get out of the apartment and away from Pops with his paranoia and Toboe with his crazy boyfriend. Perhaps I ought to call on Tia or Neige and see if they wanted to arrange for a girls' night out. Even talking with Cher Lebowski would probably help me put things into perspective; the woman might be my fiancé's workaholic boss, but she was married to my father's closest friend and knew something about having to deal with crazy men. Just having the chance to complain about the situation to someone who had an idea of what I was talking about would probably make me feel better.

After all, it wasn't like things were really bad around here. I liked my job, my fiancé truly cared for me, my family looked out for one another, I had friends I can trust, and we all had our health. That was all I could reasonably ask for from this world.

Even so, a part of me wanted to get out and walk the streets and alleyways of the city, working my way to the edge of the dome and from there… I didn't particularly know, or care. The restless part of me just wanted out.

This, of course, was stuff and utter nonsense. Beyond the dome, Freeze City was surrounded in ice. The dome was huge enough to contain its own weather patterns, but you hardly had to walk to the edge to recognize that these were a tawdry sham of the real northern storms beyond. No human being could survive out there long without plenty of specialized survival gear. I was overreacting, that was all. A night out with my friends should bring things back into perspective.

I gave up on smoothing out my bangs and fluffed my short black hair into a stylized tousle. It was getting too long for my liking again; I hadn't worn it much longer than about three inches from my scalp since I was ten years old. I probably still looked a mess, but maybe now there would be some order to it.

Just get through the rest of the evening without anyone getting hurt, I instructed myself. Save the little things for later.

The smell, that odd musk and wildflower perfume, had been in the bedroom, I recognized now. I hadn't really been aware of it when it was mixed with wet dog and whatever other smells were incubating in there, but standing just beyond its range, with a moment to think to myself, I could recognize it for its affects on me.

That dog… was the smell coming from him? Was it being around that creature that made me so restless? It couldn't be. I'd smelled wet dog practically since I walked in, and while it was true that I'd been on edge, I could tell the difference between the smell of dog and that wild, half-floral scent. Hige would probably be able to identify it, whatever it was. Maybe that was the flower smell he had mentioned earlier.

"Blue? Are you about done in there?" Speak of the devil and he'll come knocking softly, I thought ironically. I probably had been tying it up too long, I supposed.

"Yeah, you're up," I said, giving up on my hair and pushing the door open. Beyond, I saw everyone but Pops was in the bedroom. Tsume looked exceedingly uncomfortable with this fact, but he remained seated next to my brother, both them with one hand resting in the dog's scruff. "Sorry, I didn't realize that there was a line."

"Not really, we're just sitting," my brother reassured me. Toboe's mouth was twisted in pensiveness and his eyes flickered between the dog and the doorway. Obviously there was something he wanted to ask, but didn't quite feel comfortable voicing.

Well, that was where nosy, overprotective big sisters came in handy. "Everything all right, Toboe?" The single bed was awfully crowded between two men and a big dog, so I settled for leaning against the wall as Hige claimed the facilities.

"He didn't believe me about the dog," Tsume said.

"He does seem… a little stranger than I thought," Toboe admitted. "You'll let me know how he's doing though, right?" he asked his boyfriend.

"Of course. You can always come and check on him yourself, if you're really worried about him." Tsume shrugged as if there were other things that he'd rather my brother come to check on, but he was making a peace offering.

"I'll come do that, then." The dog raised its head towards my brother's face, licking at its nose. Toboe gave it a scratch under the chin, staring at it in puzzled wonderment.


	12. Still the Same, Ain't Nothing Changed

A/N: I don't own. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

* * *

The pale haired man wasted little time; as soon as Toboe and his family had left the old apartment, he retreated to the bedroom and slammed the door, glaring at the canine that lounged upon his tangled sheets.

"What the hell was that?" Tsume paced the dark bedroom, staring at the wolf upon the bed. "What the hell did you mean, 'missed you, Toboe?'" The white wolf's yellow eyes stared impassively back into his. "How do you know my runt?" the tall man growled.

"Same way I know you." The wolf appeared to look beyond his uneasily pacing host, staring into the distance as if searching for a fading scent.

"A past life?" Tsume received no verbal response, although the way the wolf briefly focused upon him and then turned back to his unseen goal was answer enough. "What were you, in this last life? What were you to us?"

"A madman," the wolf said with dry irony, still not focusing on the pale-hared being pacing before him. "I… was trying to lead you to paradise. We almost made it. I thought I had."

"You made it and not us." Tsume crossed his arms, his voice still filled with furious suspicion. "Why was that, I wonder?"

"Because she chose me, I think. She loved all of us, but you and Toboe and Hige were her wolf brothers, her followers. I was her protector. Cheza never quite seemed to know what she did to me, but believe me, Tsume, you don't have to worry about your runt." A canine grin overtook the white wolf's mouth as he continued to try to bore a hole in the wall with his yellow gaze.

Tsume let loose a grunt between a sigh and a snort. "If I thought I could trust you, I suppose that would be comforting." Although he never precisely stopped moving, the tall man slowed and confined his circuit to the edges of the bed. "What are you staring at, anyway?"

"The moon should be out tonight. I'd heal faster beneath it." The wolf's paws twitched in his eagerness to run.

"Too bad," Tsume said. "I'm not hauling you around."

"I'd also heal faster if I could get something to eat," the white wolf reminded him reproachfully. The scent of food had not quite faded from the cramped, musty apartment.

The yellow-eyed man shrugged. "You figure out how to get off the bed and I'll grab you something. I don't want vermin scrabbling all over my pillow while I'm asleep." From the way he glared at the wolf, Kiba assumed that Tsume was speaking of more than rats and insects.

The wolf let out a long, ragged breath and gingerly scooted to the edge of the bed. Tsume eventually took pity on him and assisted with his injured rear leg once Kiba had put some weight on his front paws. The sheet fluttered to the floor beneath his feet.

"Leave it," Tsume said when the wolf attempted to untangle himself. "I promised Toboe I'd look after you, and I guess you need some place to sleep, anyway. It'll save me the trouble of washing it twice."

Tsume stole out of his room, returning with scraps from dinner. "Haven't been hunting while I was playing host for the humans. Blue and Quent are too suspicious; those idiots keep digging where they shouldn't. And Hige's never known when to leave well enough alone."

"Some things never change," Kiba noted with amusement, wolfing down the remains of the food.

Tsume leaned against the doorway, watching him eat. "You said that Blue and Hige used to be like us."

"They still are; they've simply forgotten it," the white wolf corrected, licking his chops.

"I don't understand how you can forget the form you were born into," the tall man said.

The white wolf looked him over, considering him from the platinum rattail and mismatching gold earrings through the well-fitted black leather coat to the heels of his cycling boots. The yellow eyes of the shorter predator drifted over to the closet, where he thought he spotted a more familiar-looking jacket, torn sleeves and all. "How long since you've been a wolf, Tsume?"

An eyebrow, pale against the dark skin surrounding it, rose in challenge. "What do you mean?" Tsume growled.

"Stay too long in the projection and you lose your grasp on your true form. We both know what you are." Kiba attempted to reassure the man's quick-tempered pride. "No one's going to be aiming a gun at you here in your own den. So why the illusion?"

"I can't let myself get sloppy." The wolf should have known better than to expect a straight answer from the pale-haired man, but evidently, he wasn't the only one with secrets.

"Even amongst other wolves? You'll lose your bite," Kiba prodded him.

Tsume reached for the zipper of his coat, toying with it uncomfortably. "I can handle myself. It's been nearly a month since the last time I needed to let loose and howl."

The wolf hadn't missed the gesture. "Something wrong with your scar?"

"Which one?" Tsume chuckled, but the cold yellow-eyed stare at his chest halted his laughter. "You shouldn't know about that one. Not unless you were there with us." Kiba said nothing. "Dammit, if you know about that scar, you should know what's wrong with it. You should know why I have to hide from other wolves."

"Not from me, Tsume. Not from your pack." The pale furry head lowered to the tangled sheet that still smelled heavily of musk and canine.

"I don't have a pack," the white-blond snapped. "Not since Zali turned them into dogs."

The wolf looked surprised by this information, but not completely lost. "You ran with them?" The white head cocked incredulously at the dark-skinned man.

"What, you think I got all my knowledge about paradise from mystical memories of some past life?" The yellow-eyed man snorted in contempt. "You're not the only one who's been searching. But if what you say is true, you're the only one to find it. The gates to paradise lead here, eh? Some paradise." Tsume surveyed his battered, lifeless apartment with cynical affection.

"It isn't what I'd hoped it would be. Even my memory of those last days is jumbled, twisted, but I remember who tainted our work when Cheza and I had given up everything - our lives, our friends, our world - all to open paradise. You and Hige and Blue - even Toboe and the old man… you'd tried to stop him, but Darcia nearly ruined our chances in the end. He mortally wounded us all." Kiba chewed fretfully at his leg. "And he lingers still. It was my blood mixed with Cheza's that opened the way, but he tainted it somehow, adding one last twist of the knife with this corrupted paradise." Tsume knelt and pushed the blocky white head away from the injury, his face expressionless. "I have to find her again and see if we can't set this world right. Somehow we got a second chance, Tsume. I'm not going to let it go to waste."

The yellow-eyed man didn't let go of the beast's head. "You don't know that it won't be worse."

"We don't know that it can't be better, either. You afraid to try again?" Tsume glared at Kiba, mulling over the words.

At last, he released the wolf's muzzle. "Never. I just don't want to do anything stupid. You said that all of us died fighting the noble in that last life. Me, Blue and Hige, the runt, and the old man. Tell me, was he one of us?"

Kiba laughed. "Quent? Quent Yaiden hunted wolves. Blue used to be his hound before Cheza showed her what she was."

"I guess some things never do change." Tsume rose to four feet, his lips parted in a half-smile. "Was the runt his dog, too?"

"You know Toboe," Kiba said. "He always sees the best in everybody, from a trigger-happy old drunk, to a prideful, impulsive wolf fixated on paradise, to even a touchy, over-secretive gangster. Eventually, you just give in to your better nature around him."

"Touchy?" The gray wolf whose damp scent had long since filled the apartment lifted half his upper lip in warning. "I've got reasons for keeping my secrets. I'll see you on your way to paradise, but I'm not risking Toboe."

"Shouldn't you let _him_ decide?" the white wolf asked, curling up in his sheet.

"When he's ready," Tsume said, leaping over him and turning around four times before lying down on the bed.


	13. There's a Bad Moon on the Rise

A/N: Bones owns and Words without betaed.

* * *

It's hard to see the moon and stars inside a dome. Only on the clearest nights at certain hours is it possible to get a good enough look at the moon's outline to figure out its phase. It was luck that got us a twenty-sixth-floor apartment. (Bad luck, Hige always insisted, whenever the elevator broke down, but I've never minded the stairs if it means a better view of the stars.) It was my own conscious decision, however, that earned me the window.

I'd had to fight Toboe for it, but he was born and raised in Freeze City. He's equipped for dealing with the noise and closeness and recycled air of this place. Sometimes, I just had to turn up an old fiddle tune loud enough to drown out most of the street noises, open the window and shut my eyes, and just let Kyrios drift into the room for a few moments. My brother understood, but that didn't mean that he'd always respect my privacy when there was a full moon on the rise.

Therefore, it hadn't surprised me all that much when I felt him duck under my arm while I was stargazing, lost in my own little corner of the world a few nights after he'd discovered the dog. "It's gorgeous out tonight," I observed, scooting over before he applied his elbows.

"Yeah," Toboe said absently, looking down to people-watch. "Hey, Blue?"

"Mmm?" I murmured. The air smelled as clean as it ever did in the city, just after the rain clouds cleared away.

"There's something down there." He pointed towards an alley, barely visible from our apartment. Within the shadows of the narrow passage, the rising moon shone briefly upon two luminous blurs of fur, monochromatic in the starlight. One of them was limping.

I shivered, pulling my arm away from my brother so that he wouldn't feel it. "Somebody ought to get an exterminator for these coyotes. They could hurt people if they get any bolder."

"You sure those were coyotes?" Toboe asked. Was he implying what I thought he was implying? He really ought to cut back on the fantasy from the library. Pops wasn't much better; he always said that a pack of wolves had attacked Kyrios in his younger days, long before I was born, but really, the creatures had been extinct for hundreds of years.

"I suppose they could have been strays," I said, deliberately avoiding the topic.

"And if they weren't?" My little brother leaned out the window, his hair shifting with the breeze.

"That's what we've got guns for," I said, pulling him back in. His balance was usually fairly good for his age, but Toboe could get clumsy when he was tired.

He scooted back inside, but left a hand on the windowsill. "You have to admit it: from a distance, they were really pretty."

"So are the stars," I replied, glancing upwards. "That doesn't mean that they'd be nice to touch."

Light brown eyes followed my lead. "No, but the world would be a whole lot colder without them."

I reached to tousle my little brother's hair. "What's with you, Toboe? Dating some gang outrider isn't enough danger for you?"

"It's not like that," he said, shoving rust-colored strands back out of his face. "Tsume doesn't ride for a gang." Toboe had phrased that very carefully, I noticed. I wondered how much Tsume had told him… how much Toboe had gotten involved… I pushed the thoughts to back of my mind, feeling guilty.

My brother and I used to be close. I supposed, compared to many siblings, we still were, but that tie was lengthening to the point that I feared it would fray and snap. I knew that even our runt would have to grow up and walk his own path, but much like our father, there was a part of me that insisted that we could keep Toboe out of trouble if only we kept a personal guard on him at all times. But that procedure was the way to madness for all of us.

"I'm not going to go do anything stupid, Blue," he reassured me, as if he could read my thoughts from the flicker of moonlight across my face. "But I'm not afraid of whatever danger may come my way."

"Would you mind if we were scared of it for you?" I asked, putting my arm back around him.

My brother snorted, reaching up to muss my hair. "Not as long as you let me do the same for you."


	14. The Same Road that I'm on

A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta.

* * *

"The exit is this way?" The white wolf raised his nose to the wind, staring after the dissipating clouds that slid wetly towards the west.

Tsume yawned indifferently, luxuriating in the feel of sharp teeth beneath his long tongue. Kiba had been right… it had been too long since the gray had dropped his human projection. There was blending in with one's surroundings and then there was losing who and what he was. "One of them. I can make sure you're unwatched when you get out of here."

"Good. Catch up once you're done." Kiba trotted confidently down the alley, his tail held high until Tsume snaked out his jaws to catch the brushy white appendage.

"Run that by me again?" Tsume said, holding firm and digging in his paws.

The paler wolf turned to give him a disbelieving stare. "Do what you have to and then let's go."

"You don't get it, do you?" The silver-gray wolf released Kiba's tail and spat out the fur clinging to his jaws. "You're still limping from whatever the hell injured you. I need a night or two to call the gang and even convince Sedo to go along with this. Toboe's here, and I'm not leaving him."

The white wolf gave no verbal or visual response; he simply continued to stare. Tsume released a frustrated sigh. "I'm staying here, Kiba."

"We'll bring him with us. It's only right." The pale canine started walking once more, and Tsume felt as if he were being pulled on against his will, trying to keep up with this insane wanderer.

"Now who's deciding things for the runt?" the darker wolf muttered. "You remember what you've told me about what happened last time? You remember how I said that I've tried searching for it without you? Don't you think there's a reason I stopped?" The silver-gray wolf stepped around Kiba, raising his head so that the large X-shaped scar upon his chest was clearly visible. "You think I've heard one single goddamn good reason to follow you through hell for nothing _again_?"

The white wolf merely paused, and smiled. "Toboe."

"What do you mean?" Tsume growled.

"On the road to paradise, we became a pack. On the road to paradise, we can become wolves once more. It gets lonely, being a lone wolf…" Kiba said. Those yellow eyes, so often focused upon something in the far distance, seemed to stare directly through Tsume's marrow. It would have bothered him, if it had not been for the empathy in Kiba's expression. Because of that, those eyes just drove Tsume mad.

"Give me a couple nights and try to stay off your leg," the gray muttered in defeat. "I'll ask him."


	15. She Never Mentions the Word Addiction

A/N: Bones owns, Words without betaed.

* * *

There was something rustling in my bedroom. At first, I assumed that it was simply the cats, but the boys were sharing a rare peaceful moment curled up together on the couch and the ginger female was investigating the scratching post at the bottom of the cat tree for scents. I stood from the table, drew my knife, and eased open the door. The sight before me nearly made me drop my weapon.

"Tsume?"

The pale-haired intruder turned, jangling something between his palms, apparently unconcerned about the weapon in my hand. "No wonder it's so hard to get at you alone. I always wondered if there was a leash on you that your old man and boyfriend and brother passed between them, and now I find the collar to match." He displayed his prize, offering a sardonic smirk. "Nice taste, by the way. I like the spikes."

I snatched the loop of riveted silvery fabric away from him. "How did you get in here?"

Tsume pointed a thumb behind him. "Window." This explained absolutely nothing. It had never been barred; installing such things in this neighborhood this high up had seemed a waste of resources. It wasn't unusual for me to leave it open while I was home alone. The ledge was narrow, and our apartment building did not offer many handholds. Surely he hadn't broken into the place above us and dropped down merely to make an entrance…

I placed the collar behind me, not yet resheathing my knife. I'd been willing to try to give Tsume a chance, but this was going to require one hell of an explanation. "The door not good enough for you?"

The tall man shrugged. "We all have our little quirks." Yellow eyes drifted to the collar atop the scorched old footlocker at the end of my bed. "Like that."

"You remember the conversations we had about your job and your scar?" I asked him pointedly.

"You mean the conversations we're not having." Tsume's eyes flashed back to me as he replied flatly. This categorical refusal to talk had proven his guilt in Pop's and Hige's eyes, but people could change. I'd been willing to think that it might simply be an embarrassing memory. At least, before I found the white-blond pawing through my own secrets.

"We're having a similar lack of conversation about this collar." I circled around him, trying to see what had been displaced. Not much; it looked as if the tall man had been informed as to exactly where to find it. "Why are you here, Tsume? Give me two good reasons why I shouldn't put a knife through your hand and call in the police, and don't you dare use my brother as one of them. Toboe might be very interested to know what his supposedly firmly homosexual boyfriend happens to be doing in my room while he's at school."

"Please. For one thing, you couldn't." Tsume simply snorted, and then there was a blur headed towards my throat. I brought up my knife, barely scraping it between the blade and the opposing spike. The corner of Tsume's lips twitched; but whether it was in a smile or a snarl I couldn't tell. "You're better than I thought," he muttered, schooling his features back into unaffected disdain.

"Can't say the same here." I hadn't even seen him reach for the blade, but I wouldn't reveal any more weakness than I had to. Besides, it was the truth. He was just as good with a knife as I'd expected him to be, but knives were not unstoppable.

"I'm not here to play with you, girl. I'm here to tell you to get out." He shoved forward, twisting his blade loose as I struggled to maintain my balance.

"I believe I should be the one telling you that when we're in my room," I said, backing towards the door to the kitchenette. I didn't want to run, but I would if I had to.

As quickly as it appeared, the smooth-edged, spiked, double-gripped knife vanished back into black leather pants that looked too tight to ever properly hide such a thing. "Sit down, Blue. Maybe your old man is too drunk to ever notice it and you've got your boy and your brother pussy-whipped, but you don't scare me. I can recognize a lack of balls when I see it."

Grudgingly, I opened the door, hoping that I could get him out of the rest of the apartment without much more fuss. Pops and Hige were right. I should have known better than to doubt their instincts. "You think I wouldn't use this on you if I had to?"

Tsume turned his back on me as he walked through the door, swatting at empty air as if to brush away the concept. "Any idiot can try to use a knife to protect themselves. It's there that I see lack of balls." He pointed at my room as I stood protectively in the doorway. "It's in the five applications to the police academy, the five acceptance letters addressed to Sheila B. Yaiden and absolutely no follow-up, the boxes still filled with random junk in Hige's apartment, and that single ring on your left finger."

"That's none of your business." Where the hell had that come from? Tsume shouldn't have known about half of that. Besides, the applications didn't count; Pops needed all the income from work that we could afford to stay solvent if we were going to keep Toboe comfortable… Toboe. That ought to explain where this unwelcome visitor had gotten his information. My brother had never been good at keeping his mouth shut.

The pale haired-man grabbed a kitchen chair, propping his boots upon a second one. "Normally, I'd be the first to agree with you, but like it or not, you influence my runt."

"_Your_ runt?" I asked disbelievingly. Yellow eyes stared back unflinchingly into my own.

"I want him to move in with me, Blue. He's embarrassed to even consider it as long as his big sister is still hanging around. For some reason, he thinks you're a good role model." Tsume removed a pair of dark sunglasses from a pocket and slipped them flush against his nose. The light in the kitchen was not that bright.

"You never thought that he might be embarrassed about moving into that rat hole you call an apartment with a man who attempts to impress the in-laws with a breaking and entering stunt?" I shot back, clutching firmly to the doorframe. At least he hadn't gone through the door into my brother's room; this conversation was awkward enough without that setting.

"You think I like the idea of having Toboe in that place? You think I had a choice about living there myself?" Tsume growled, leaning forward.

"There's always a choice," I interrupted him coldly, turning my eyes pointedly in the direction of the apartment door.

"Not when I love him, there's not," Tsume grumbled grudgingly, turning his head to face the door. "I've seen the way your old man drinks, the way both of you reach for your weapons without the least hesitation. The liver may go, but I think Quent Yaiden's mind'll leave him first. He really believes wolves will destroy the world, doesn't he?"

"You're saying that you think Pops would mistake you for a wolf? What, and I suppose I'll be some sort of passenger pigeon?" Pops did consume more vodka than he should, but he was extremely healthy, all things considered. He was smart, with plenty of common sense, allowing for his preferred vice. It's not as safe as drowning out the world with noise and fresh air, but there wasn't a window in the master bedroom. I could understand that Pops needed to occasionally drown out the world, too, and, well, the windows this high up had never been barred… It wasn't a perfect solution, but it worked.

"I'm not saying that he would mistake me for anything." Tsume's words dripped with sarcasm. "That animal Toboe found knows where its owner is, and it's up to me to get it home. If he hears about it, the runt'll want to come with me."

"What does this have to do with fairytale creatures?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Don't tell me you're blind, Blue. Didn't you get a look at that 'dog?'" I blinked and then stepped into the kitchenette. I was not going to let these wild statements faze me, even if the white creature was larger and more feral-looking than any dog I'd ever seen.

"I don't believe you." Not yet. There was more going on here than a want for company. Already, Toboe spent nearly as much time with his boyfriend as he did at home. Wolf or no wolf, this wasn't a simple matter of dropping off a pet.

"Doesn't matter." The white-blond shrugged expansively as Shu decided to make his entrance, weaving his way between the chair legs. "Will the old man believe it? Will Toboe?"

The damned treacherous cat leapt on the table and butted his head demandingly against Tsume's shoulder. When the man ignored him, Shu decided to make himself comfortable in Tsume's lap, kneading his claws into the leather pants. I retracted my silent curses as Tsume unleashed his own against the black and white cat. The tuxedo was an angel of an animal.

Even an angel, I feared, wouldn't save my brother, though. "Where does this owner live?"

"Paradise," Tsume said, pushing Shu away.

"You've got to be kidding me." The man had never struck me as the sort to buy into myths and fairy tales. He was cynical enough about everything else.

The sunglasses hid those yellow eyes, but his body language gave away his emotions anyway. "I really wish I was, Blue."

"Fine, then; I'll go." He started at my sudden agreement. "If you lead my brother on some wild goose chase, I'll be right behind you. And I'll be watching you, Tsume. Now get your feet off the chair."

Languidly, as if he had thought of it himself and had not heard my order, the tall man stretched and turned to rise before heading towards the entrance. "I appreciate it."

Arrogant son of a bitch.


	16. I'm Not Your Stepping Stone

A/N: Not my characters. Words Without did the beta.

* * *

"And?" Kiba didn't bother to raise his head as Tsume opened the door.

"You were right," the pale-haired man admitted, shoving the locks home. "She doesn't believe it, but if Toboe comes, she'll be following us too. And where the bitch goes, the old man and porky aren't far behind."

The reclining wolf grunted in thought. "I'd be glad to have Hige, but there's no way we can escape without Quent, is there?"

Tsume shoved him over and sprawled over an armrest, dropping his illusion to reveal a scarred gray canine even larger than the white - although, like their human disguises, the silver-colored wolf was built more leanly than Kiba. "Well, I suppose I could always knock him out, tie him up, and throw the runt over my shoulder, but the others wouldn't be too pleased with us."

"It'd only be for their own good," the white wolf grumbled. Tsume wasn't sure if the pale canine had caught his sarcasm or not. He turned to give Kiba a condescending yellow-eyed stare. Turnabout was fair play, after all. The white wolf sighed and flicked his ears in irritation. "Yes, I know your damn 'city rules.' That doesn't mean I can't wish for the simplicity of the wild."

"You'd be dead in the wild." A long gray leg kicked in Kiba's direction. The shorter wolf's leg could support his weight now, but despite his best efforts to mask his limp, Tsume could tell that the limb still pained the white canine.

"I've survived worse," Kiba said, although he did not meet the gray's gaze.

"Because you had a pack," Tsume summarized cynically. "Here, the closest thing you're going to get to one are humans, so don't do anything stupid."

"Like steal from their trains?" The white wolf knew he was hardly the only hypocrite here.

The gray shrugged irritably, rising from the couch and reclaiming the dark skin, pale hair, and leather clothing of his humanoid illusion. "Humans do that, too. What humans don't do is rip an old man's throat out with their teeth. The cops get suspicious about that." Tsume moved to investigate the small fridge.

"I finished off the last of the deer meat," Kiba informed him, receiving an irritated groan in response.

"You're supposed to stay off your damn leg and out of my kitchen," Tsume snapped, trying to content his belly with the mystery meat of a cheap sausage. "Besides, I thought you shunned illusions."

Kiba let his tongue hang in an evil grin. "They have their uses. So, I talked to Sedo…"

Tsume spat out his bite to keep from choking. The sausage tasted awful, anyway; worse than rat meat. He didn't know why he had bought the things… "Not in that form, I hope." He pointed at the brushy white fur with the supposed food item in his hand.

"I'm not as stupid as you think," the pale canine said. "I told him I was one of your new recruits that you'd sent to arrange a meeting to discuss a new job, but he was frightened enough of my human form."

Tsume rolled his eyes. "Lucky he's a spineless rat, or else you'd have had your face blown off. He probably thought you were a cop and now it's gonna be a month before I can drag him out of his bolt-hole. If I want a meeting, I call it myself. Don't interfere with what you don't understand, Kiba."

The wolf shrugged. "We'll find some other way, then. All else fails, we're heading into a place where the wild's rules apply." The long pink tongue licked slowly about white fangs.

"Not a_ll_ of them," Tsume insisted, ripping off another bite of the sausage. It was disgusting, but at least it was civilized.


	17. I Didn't See the Devil in Your Eyes

A/N: I don't own Wolf's Rain. Thanks to Words Without for looking this over!

* * *

It had been too long since Pops had taken me along on a contract. I loped at his side, careful not to let my emotions overtake my senses. When properly channeled, aggression and excitement were a boon to the experienced bounty hunter, but when you lost your head in this business, you lost your life. With very few exceptions, we were trying to take our target alive, and they had few compulsions to leave us the same way.

This target, referred to in the report only as Kiba, was supposedly an up-and-coming lieutenant in the Claw Gang. The source Detective Lebowski had gotten his information from insisted that from this catspaw, the ringleaders would be easy enough to find and convict. Hubb Lebowski had warned us that the information might not be entirely correct; his stool-pigeon was out of favor with the current gang leader.

Still, an assignment was an assignment. The target had last been spotted somewhere along Shade Boulevard, and I let my nose, ears, and eyes take it from there. A lot of people, including Pops, tend to rely too much on vision when it comes to tracking. I figured I was born with a good nose and excellent hearing, so why not pay attention to the things a runner might not think to cover? Admittedly, one usually doesn't hear one person in particular until he's already close enough to leave visual clues, but it never hurts.

We had gone the better part of the way down the boulevard when I caught that scent again, the strange wild odor that sent my blood racing. Despite myself, I quickened my pace, leaving Pops to catch up. "You found him, Blue?" my father shouted.

I didn't respond. I didn't know what I'd found, honestly. But at Pop's words, a young man around my age in scruffy jeans and a rumpled bomber jacket began to increase his pace, staggering slightly as he pushed his way through the other passersby. The scent led to him. That was enough. I started to run flat out after him.

"Hey! Hold up! The Freeze City Police want to speak with you!" Someday, I'd be able to cut that down to three words, but I couldn't afford to be sloppy as a deputy. Damn Tsume for bringing it up…

My target, in the meantime, ignored the whole phrase, pushing himself hard enough to elude me even with a bum leg. He glanced back once, his pale, blue-green-eyed face framed by black hair, fitting the profile we'd been given as well as anyone else could.

The man turned into an alleyway, and in the moment it took to follow, I lost visual. Dammit, I was better than this. I could still smell that scent at least; he couldn't have gotten far… "Pops! This way!" I was not going to lose him.

I was so focused on my target that I later supposed that I shouldn't have been so surprised. Speak of the devil and he comes knocking, or rather, in this case, I knocked into him.

"I'd expect this from the runt," Tsume growled. "But I'm getting really tired of it from you." His dog cowered behind him, looking ashamed to be seen with us.

"Tsume," Pops said slowly from the mouth of the alley. "Get away from that animal." His voice was rough and distracted with paranoia, but that was perhaps the most regard with which my father had ever addressed Toboe's boyfriend.

"What, you're going to arrest me for breaking the leashing law?" The tall young man made no move to comply, continuing to linger between the dog - the wolf, he had all but called it - and my father's rifle.

"That's a messenger of death, boy. A harbinger of doom. Wolves bring nothing but trouble." There was fear-fueled rage in his voice and the years of drinking had left him with a frequent tremble in his fingers, but those hands were rock-steady now, aiming just to the right of Tsume's kneecap.

"You're drunk, old man," Tsume said, no more frightened by my father's gun than he had been of my knife.

"Wolves can hide their true forms, but I recognize one when I see 'em. Move, boy." The yellow-eyed man had the gall to laugh at that.

"Let's get out of here, Kiba," he told his canine companion, turning away from the gun. He placed one hand against the scruff of the dog's neck, and then they proceeded to complete the most insane series of leaps I'd ever witnessed, jumping from one narrow window ledge to the one across the alley on the next level until they had reached the rooftops.

From there, two faces stared down in amusement upon us. One was dark, coffee-skinned, adorned with a platinum rattail and golden earrings to match the yellow eyes, and the other was pale against the dark mess of longish wavy black hair, those blue-green eyes knowing and yet betraying no emotion.

This was going to require one fucking hell of an explanation.


	18. I'll Die as I Stand Here

A/N: Not my 'verse. Thanks to Words Without for all the help!

* * *

Tsume's smirk lasted no longer than it took for Blue and Quent to recover their composure. The scent of fear still wafted upwards, but the hunters beneath him were heading towards the entrance of the building, and from there, they were presumably headed for the roof. The wolves had gotten a reprieve by coming up here, not a clean getaway. Tsume had lived on the wrong side of the law long enough to know the difference, and resented what even this temporary escape had likely cost him.

"Now what?" The darker wolf groaned, watching the pair of shell-shocked bounty hunters move down the street, their eyes turning suspiciously on everyone they passed. "There goes my runt, my gang, the apartment, and probably even my bike. Thank you so fucking much, you goddamn cowardly idiot. Why did you have to get a brave streak now, of all times? Did you think I'd back you up?"

"I think it's time to move on, Tsume," Kiba told him firmly. There was no trace of shame in his aquamarine eyes, despite the death glare the golden-eyed man shot him. "You're a wolf. All you need is your fangs and feet. Everything else just ties you to the humans."

"Look, I don't know how to explain it to you, since Toboe is a wolf in whatever little dream world you live in." The tall man ran a hand over his face, sighing in frustration. "It sounds like a nice place, but I've got to live with a runt that is a human, or at least thinks he's one. I've gotta live with a bunch of idiot humans who depend on me to find them a job. I've accepted being tied to them, Kiba. I have to be if I'm going to find a living in this city."

"Dog," Kiba whispered. A spiked knife gleamed at his throat.

"What did you just call me?" Those yellow eyes no longer promised instant death. When death came, it would be a relief.

Kiba stared right back, not moving an inch. "Your choice of attack proves it. You are one of Zali's dogs, aren't you?"

Tsume bowled him over, unleashing the scarred gray wolf form and revealing his teeth. "_I _am _not_ a _dog_."

Dark-haired young man disappeared into pure white wolf, snapping back up at Tsume. Both snarled and struck, drawing blood and ripping through fur until they broke at the sound of a gunshot. By the time Quent Yaiden reached the rooftop, there was nothing remaining of either wolf but a few smears of blood.


	19. Poisoned by These Fairy Tales

A/N: I don't own. Words without betaed. Although the others are real fairy tales featuring wolves, "The Moonflower Maiden" is part of the first chapter of "Shots in Paradise."

* * *

Hige met us at the apartment with a highly distraught Toboe in tow. My fiancé had recognized the rising panic in my voice when I'd borrowed the lobby phone from the skyscraper that we'd last seen our target atop of in order to check on Hige at work and inform him about the wolf sighting. My brother looked no calmer for having been pulled out early from class, but the feel of their arms wrapping tightly about my waist in quick succession was even more calming than the sight of the high-rise before us. Burying my nose in Hige's shoulder and breathing the comforting mixture of scents, I could almost forget the smell of the wolf.

"Quent, I know he's trouble, but will you please put the gun down? Detective Lebowski is on his way and we've got enough to explain to him as it is." Hige rarely allowed himself to get overly familiar with my father, but at this point, he and Toboe were willing to try anything to calm Pops down. To be honest, he was scaring me as well, but I knew Pops wouldn't purposely harm us. That… that _wolf_, on the other hand…

When I had been very young, my father had read me stories about wolves, fairytales for the most part: "The Three Little Pigs," "The Firebird," "Lon Po Po," "The Moonflower Maiden," "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats…" At best, the wolves in these stories were amoral tricksters; they helped the hero only at great sacrifice, and they were never trustworthy. The histories of the beasts weren't much better: before they'd died off completely, wolves had raided farms and homesteads, carrying off everything from full-grown cattle to pet dogs to human children. I hadn't believed Pops about the Kyrios raids because wolves had been declared extinct a long time before that happened, not because I doubted that they were fully capable of killing entire neighborhoods if they felt the urge.

"Please, Pops," Toboe reached a hand to our father's trenchcoat, unleashing those huge honey-brown eyes of his to devastating effect.

Well, they should have been capable of stopping hearts. Pop's face softened and the barrel of the hunting rifle wavered, but then he lifted up again. "I'm sorry, son," he said, placing a weather-beaten hand on Toboe's head. "But I'm not letting that beast get you and Blue, too. With any luck, your Tsume's still all right, just as blinded by that monster as the rest of you were." This was a significant concession from Pops. At least my father was willing to see Tsume as human. After that display in the alley, I wasn't sure I was still entirely willing to do so.

"Let's just wait until we can talk with the police, right?" Hige said. He wasn't afraid of guns, like my brother was, but just because he wasn't opposed to necessary violence didn't mean that my fiancé liked causing more mayhem than a situation called for.

"You're right, Hige. We shouldn't go in there alone, Pops," I said, reloading the pistol and checking my switchblade. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to use the latter against a wolf, but today was an excellent example of the old adage that things never go as planned. "Let's wait for backup."

"They'd already left the roof in the time it took me to climb the stairs. Who knows where the wolf has gotten to?" Pops had never been one to give up easily, but then, neither were Toboe and I.

"If he's not hurting anybody, why can't we just let him go?" my brother asked.

"We can track it down if we have to," I assured my father. Hige nodded soberly beside me. He had never been trained in police procedures and tracking, but I respected his nose, and anybody standing between the wolf and civilization at large eased the fears of the screaming, frightened child deep within me. I set my mouth in a firm line, reining the inner coward back. It was embarrassing to even think that that panic lurked within me, that I could ever want Hige - my dearest, loving, laughing Hige - standing between me and danger, but I appreciated that he would be willing to stand beside me if it came down to that.

My father's face was equally grim, with more than a little wild terror lurking in the depths of his dark eyes. "We'll wait for Hubb," he agreed, lowering the rifle. "But I'm not returning home until the wolf is taken care of."

"I'll throw together a few bags, just in case," I informed him, dashing for the door.

Toboe followed after me. "Call Tia, please. See if she'll check in on the cats."

"Toboe, you don't have to come with us," I told him. He'd liked that animal. I didn't want my little brother to have to see how badly he had been deceived.

Those big brown eyes hardened. "Tsume's out there with the wolf, Blue. If you don't call Tia, then I will."

"All right," I said. "Don't forget clean underwear, runt. You'll probably need it."


	20. That Only Proves that I'm Insane

A/N: Bones owns, Words without betaed.

* * *

"I can't believe we're doing this." Tsume stroked his fingers along the handle of his motorcycle as if to apologize for the stress he would be inflicting upon its tenderly cared-for joints.

"Let's just be happy that we'll be getting out of here with some form of transport," Kiba grumbled from behind him, unwillingly gripping Tsume's jacket.

A caramel-toned hand released the grip long enough to swat at the white wolf's fist, pulling it lower to just above the exposed swathe of abdomen. "You're going to throw off my balance," Tsume complained.

"I'm not going there. I'm not your runt." Kiba compromised by holding onto the belt that cinched the leather jacket shut.

Tsume snorted. "Like you needed to remind me. You're very lucky I'm not killing you for what you said earlier."

"It got you out of the city, didn't it?" Kiba asked over the rising growl of the motor.

"Your stupid stunt got me out of the city. I can't even go back to the gang after being seen with a wolf." Tsume took off, winding through the streets towards the train station. If there was one exit out of the dome that he knew well, it was that one.

"Quent's an old drunk and Blue's known to be easily influenced by him," the white wolf whispered into Tsume's ear against the noise of the street, offering the yellow-eyed man one last out.

"Not that easy," Tsume allowed himself a brief smirk. "If you're going to murmur sweet nothings in my ear, you could change the subject. Otherwise, sit back, shut up, and hold on." He gunned the engine, weaving his way through traffic and into another bumpy back alley. "Besides," the taller of the pair added. "I'm curious to see if the old wolf still has any control over those mongrels."

"We're heading to that island again?" Kiba asked, pulling away from the driver.

"Unless you know a better way to paradise."


	21. Keep the Car Running

A/N: Bones owns. Thanks again to Words without for the beta!

* * *

Toboe and I emerged out of the apartment to the sound of a wailing police siren. Hige moved rather guiltily towards his sedan; although the car was hardly blocking traffic, it was not exactly in a legal parking space, either, due to the haste with which he'd arrived on the scene. The policeman who exited the squad car was not interested in minor vehicular offenses though, heading straight for my father instead. Pushing the gun down, Detective Lebowski put a supportive hand to Pop's shoulder and began to speak in hushed, harsh tones.

"Quent, I understand how dangerous this could be if it were true, but… a wolf?" Hubb Lebowski ran a hand through his close-cropped brown hair before shoving his fedora back into place. "You're sure it's not just a dog that happened to be in the alley around the same time as your target?"

"The kid would have had to have climbed pretty damned fast to get up to the roof before Blue and I were on him." Pops recognized the expression of frustrated disbelief in his friend's eyes as well as I did; if I hadn't seen it myself, I'd be agreeing with the detective. "I'm not drunk, Hubb. You know I don't let it addle my wits when I'm on an assignment."

Detective Lebowski shook his head, glancing briefly to Toboe and me to gage our current states of mind. I don't think he liked the expressions he saw, but he recognized them. "Nope; your judgment I can trust. It's just your superstitions that make me worry every now and then." Pops frowned, but since it was Hubb, he held his peace.

"This isn't just some superstition. I know what we saw," I spoke up, moving towards Hige. "I know it's hard to believe, detective, but that thing in the alley wasn't normal. Dogs can't leap like that." _Men can't leap like that_, I wanted to add, but Toboe was at my side, his eyes firm and his hand twitching toward his bracelets.

"We'll be outta town for a couple days, Hubb. I'm getting this target." Pops tipped his fedora and walked away from the policeman.

The detective let his hand drop and then reached to the wide brim of his hat to return the gesture. "I suspect you will, Quent. You've always been the best at bringing them in."

Hige opened the trunk of his car and lifted a suitcase out of Toboe's hands. "Would you mind telling the Doc that I'm taking a sick leave, Mr. Lebowski?" my fiancé asked. "I feel a bad case of 'Girlfriend in Trouble Flu' coming on."

Lebowski chuckled at that. "I hear you there, but Cher'll miss your help in the lab."

"We'll be back as soon as we can," Hige promised, loading another bag.

I reached for his arm. "Are you sure you want to come along? This could be dangerous, Hige."

"Then you'd be better off with a car and driver," he said with a shrug. "Where to, o mighty hunters?" he asked, pulling open the passenger door for me.

"Let's start with Tsume's apartment. That's the last place that wolf stayed," Pops said, climbing into the back with an unsettlingly silent Toboe.

"All right then," Hige said, turning his keys in the ignition. "But first, we've gotta stop for gas and run by my place for some clothes. Nobody thought to bring food, did they?"


	22. And I Don't Know if I'm Ever Coming Home

A/N: I don't own. Thanks to Words Without for looking this over!

* * *

Tsume pulled to a stop just beyond the train station and pushed Kiba's hand away from his jacket. "Get off," he instructed gruffly.

Kiba did so, stretching his bum leg and working a kink out of his neck with an audible crack. "At the risk of sounding like Hige, it'll be nice to get a real fight in again. It's been a while."

The darker man rolled his eyes. "And it'll be a while yet. Can you follow me, or do I need to put a leash on you?" He motioned Kiba forward, weaving his way through various shipping supplies towards a back entrance to the station, away from the chaos of the passenger trains.

"As long as they don't give me any reason to attack them." Kiba put his head down, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans as Tsume wheeled the bike towards the nearest open boxcar, grunting at the dockworkers. "Seems like a poor way to travel," he observed, helping Tsume throw the door shut.

The gray wolf shrugged, arranging his bike to his liking before dropping his human illusion and curling up next to it in a corner. "As long as you can fake a hint of civilization, they're not gonna complain too much about us putting goods onto the train. It's getting off in one piece that'll be the hard part." Yellow eyes observed the white wolf dispassionately. "At best, they'll try to kill us before we get to Zali's territory."

"You have a plan, or shall I come up with one?" The white settled across from him, next to the door.

There was an evil gleam in Tsume's yellow eyes. "Oh, I've got a plan. I think you'll enjoy it, though."


	23. I'm on the Hunt, I'm After You

A/N: Not mine. Words without betaed. Don't worry, for those who prefer longer chapters, this is the last one much under a thousand words through Chapter Thirty.

* * *

The apartment looked as if it had already been raided. Although Tsume was usually so careful about locking his door thoroughly, Toboe barely had to turn the latch on the knob before it swung open. Tsume's place had never seemed particularly clean, in my limited experience with it, but the main room honestly looked like a crime scene, given the toppling piles and open drawers.

Not much had actually been removed. Even the locked knife collection - now revealed openly to the world - was mostly intact, with only the long, double-spiked knuckle blade taken from its place of honor. The bedroom was in a similar state, with perhaps a few shirts and a coat or two missing from the rack and laundry pile; my brother would know better than I would.

However, it was not so much the sights that concerned me. The scent of dog lingered, overwhelming everything but that floral-bestial scent that I was coming to associate with the wolf. Knowing what it was, I could hardly take comfort in it anymore…although I had to admit that it still got my blood rushing, if for a slightly different reason. "You smell that?" I asked Hige.

He wrinkled his nose, offering me a playful frown. "It's hard not to, but you don't intend to follow it all over town, do you?"

"If I have to, I will." I turned to see how Pops was coming in the hunt for some physical clue as to the wolf's destination. Toboe was occupying himself with trying to tidy the apartment back up, as if he expected Tsume to return. My brother, too, was keeping a weather eye on Pop's search. His expression told of his disapproval, even if our runt was doing his best to keep his mouth shut. Pops had been cautious about bringing Toboe along, but he wouldn't send my brother back if it meant turning away from the hunt.

"Any idea about where it might lead us?" Pop's nose was not quite as sensitive as ours were, but just as he trusted his feet to my balance when stone drunk, my father was not ashamed to follow my senses or Toboe's instincts when they might guide us in the right direction.

"I'm not sure," Toboe said, shaking his head. "Tsume mentioned trying to get Kiba home to his owner, but he didn't say where she might live."

"Paradise," I supplied, thinking back to the tall white-blond's breaking and entering stunt. Today would explain how he made it to the window, at least.

"Well, that narrows it down. Anybody got a road map?" Hige joked.

"No, but I found something nearly as good." Pops retrieved an item from the clutter on the countertop: a timetable for the southern train lines.

We had our wolf.


	24. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

A/N: Wolf's Rain, not Warg's. Words without betaed.

* * *

"This was not exactly what I'd had in mind!" Kiba said, running as fast as he could beside the motorcycle, once again on all fours.

Tsume just smiled evilly and twisted the throttle before turning the bike back towards the path of bullets. "I thought you said you wanted a fight."

"You could have warned me what we were up against!" As agile as a swallow, Kiba broke to the other side, pinning his ears back as he leapt to a higher snow bank. Their assailant whirred and clicked, trying to get a better aim at him before Kiba could pounce upon its main turret. "You'd think the thing would stick with the train!"

"They're programmed to guard whatever items are on the train. And no, that doesn't include keeping live animals alive." Tsume braced for impact, leaping from the bike at the last second, cursing himself the whole time. The knife did not hit the central programming unit he had been aiming for, but it managed to damage one of the secondary turrets before he was thrown into the snow. Tsume was feeling rather pleased with himself until the next bullet aimed at him and Kiba came from behind.

"Pops! Don't!" The service road was hardly worthy of the term, and Hige's car was just as laughable an example of its definition, but the engine was complainingly working its way to them, bringing the Yaidens and their weapons with it. Quent had stuck his rifle out of the window, but it was the rear passenger side door that quickly gained Tsume's full attention.

"Toboe!" Leaving Kiba to deal with the automated guardian for the moment, Tsume stayed low and worked his way over to where the redhead had tumbled out of the moving car. The boy was an idiot, the tall man decided once more. That was probably more than a little bit of the reason he loved Toboe, but damn if the runt didn't worry him half to death sometimes.

"Tsume," Toboe managed once he'd gotten some breath back into his lungs. He had rolled when he hit the snow, and now he shivered beneath Tsume's sheltering crouch. "I wanted to protect you, but it looks like I didn't do so good."

"You did okay, runt. You'll have other chances." Dark fingers wrapped about Toboe's arms, chafing some warmth back into the frozen limbs as Tsume checked the redhead for injuries.

"Why'd you leave me behind? Blue said something about searching for paradise." Large honey-brown eyes flashed apprehensively towards the car and its occupants and then towards the wolf and killer machine.

There were no obvious cuts, at least. Toboe's coat had borne the brunt of the impact when he had dived out of the car. "Where we're headed might as well be hell. I didn't want you in the line of fire, runt," Tsume said.

"I don't care. I'm coming with you," Toboe insisted, gripping the dark, leather-clad arms back. The white-blond sighed and pulled his small companion to his knees, checking behind him to see how Kiba was faring against the robot. Hige had pulled his junker to an abrupt stop when Toboe had tumbled out, and Blue and Quent poured out as well, laying down a covering fire to take care of both machine and wolf. The white wolf dodged it easily enough, but the robot turned at the first shot that hit and returned fire.

"Get down!" Quent pushed his daughter out of the way of the wave of mechanical fury barreling down upon them, trying to aim for its head, its guidance systems, anything that might give them a chance to escape as the white wolf could.

Kiba, however, had not used his chance to bolt. Instead, the wolf turned and flung himself atop the robot once more, a heavy block of ice in his jaws. He rammed it home against the main CPU, leaping free as the quadrupedal machine staggered and whirred to a halt. The white wolf landed, turned, and fixed the hunters with unflinching golden eyes.

Blue let loose with her automatic pistol, but the shot went wide, barely grazing through the snow-colored fur. Kiba lifted his upper lip in warning and then dropped it, padding slowly towards the humans.

Tsume held Toboe tighter, hearing the click of Quent Yaiden's trigger. No bullet tore out of the rifle in response. Quent pulled again, but the rifle was empty. Beside him, Blue let the muzzle of her pistol dip as Hige scrabbled around the car to hold her tight. Step by halting step, the white wolf approached the family. Blue's aim followed him shakily, but she didn't fire.

At last, Kiba stood sniffing at a shell-shocked Toboe. "You all right, kid?" he asked, dropping to his knees in human form. Blue looked as nervous at this change as her father did, but when the white wolf extended a hand, the redhead took it.

"I'm fine." Toboe's shivers belied his words, but he leaned into his boyfriend's embrace and squeezed Kiba's hand in an effort to conserve pride and body heat. "It's - it's just really cold out here."

"Let's get you in the car, then," Tsume said, motioning for Blue, Hige, and Quent to follow. Used to shadowing her father's steps, the young woman with the pistol was quick enough to come after him, but Quentin Yaiden was digging in his pockets for more bullets. It was probably a sign of how chilled and shocked with fear the mercenary was that a spare wheel of shells did not immediately appear in his hands.

Once he had assured himself that his fiancée was physically fine, albeit shaky, cold, and confused, Hige's brown eyes turned curiously upon the wolf. The tawny-haired man saw Kiba stagger as he attempted to raise himself to two feet, and Hige rushed to steady the black-haired form against a wide shoulder. "They always told me not to pick up hitchhikers, but I think I owe you a ride, at least," the stocky intern said. Blue shuddered, and silently headed for the back passenger seat, next to her father. Hige offered her a half-apologetic grimace and eased Kiba into the seat in front of her. Neither she nor her father had let go of their weapons.

"Can I stay with you?" Toboe clung to Tsume, observing the four in the car with as much apprehension as the tall, pale-haired man felt.

"Sure," the yellow-eyed man replied, picking his way past the wreckage of the train guardian to his abused motorcycle. Even after being run into a snowdrift, it still appeared to be in better shape than Hige's car. "Hold on tight, runt." They were barely half a dozen miles from the island, but it was going to be a long drive.


	25. Such a Delicate Boy,

A/N: Quent'll kill me if I try to claim anything. Thanks to Words Without for the beta. This is one of those insanely long chapters that just got divided, by the way.

* * *

**Paradise Blues: Part II - The Broken Pack**

* * *

The wolf - the man - the thief - the one who had saved us - the target - the one who might have killed us, but he _didn't_ but he still might... Kiba sat right in front of me, staring straight ahead after Tsume's motorcycle, completely silent and apparently oblivious to my internal struggle to define him.

"If you get blood on my interior, you're paying for the cleanup," Hige said before starting the engine. It wasn't as though the fabric was in any better condition than the rest of the car, but I sat the pistol in my lap for the moment, and after offering both Kiba and Hige a warning glare, Pops followed suit and put away his rifle. Kiba made no move, barely even glancing at us as Pops at last removed the extra wheel of bullets from his pocket and replaced it in the gun, letting the spent brass clatter into his gloved palm. My father spent the rest of the ride refilling the wheel. I sat watching him until we pulled into town, listening to the familiar clicks to drive away the roar of the wind outside and the heavy silence of the being in front of me. He looked harmless, but I did not trust nine millimeter bullets or the switchblade up my sleeve to save me from this creature if he decided to turn on us.

I did not envy my brother the windburn he was bound to get, clinging to Tsume's back on that little red bike, but a part of me was glad that Toboe was not here, not with the wolf. Even if the worst should happen, Tsume could get my baby brother away from this, away from any scene of slaughter. They would not even have to look back.

"So, Kiba, isn't it? Where're you headed?" Love him for it or not, Hige never was one to hold to silence.

"What's it matter? We should take him back to Freeze City if we don't kill the beast where he stands," Pops growled. "Nothing but an agent of desecration…" He rammed the next shell home so hard that I was half-afraid that it would go off in his fist.

Those blue-green eyes continued to stare after Tsume's motorcycle. "Paradise," he answered Hige, ignoring my father.

"Huh," my fiancé glanced from the narrow, snow-covered bridge. "That doesn't sound like a drive to destroy the world to me."

"You've never read the Book of the Moon." Pops glared at Hige as if he were wondering if my intended had lost his mind. "The road to paradise is a path to apocalypse."

"If that's the only way to find her, so be it," Kiba spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. How could he dismiss the entire world so mildly? "But my intentions are to save the world, not destroy it."

"Tell that to my wife. Tell that to Bruce. Tell it to all your kind killed in Kyrios." Pops replaced the filled wheel in his pocket, his hand twitching for his rifle.

"And how many of my kind were killed in Kyrios?" The wolf glanced only into the rearview mirror, but his eyes were frightening enough when merely reflected in glass. "I'm heading for paradise, and Cheza. Blue, Hige, you're welcome to join us. I won't hurt you if I don't have to, Quent, but I'm not heading back to the city with you." How had he known? What had Tsume told him?

"Paradise sounds worth checking out," Hige said, either not noticing that the wolf knew more than he should or opting to ignore it for the moment.

"Toboe's going?" I asked, although I suspected I already knew the answer before that dark head of hair nodded in front of me. "Then Pops and I are going too." This presumption earned me glares from both my father and the white wolf, but I was damned if I was leaving Toboe alone with one proven wolf and another who might be. I was equally damned if I could scrounge up the bravery to do this without Pops, though. Thank god he didn't contradict my bold statement.

Before us, the biker wound his way into a deserted-looking back street of the run-down island city, pulling into a rather tawdry-looking strip mall. At least there were a few other cars in the lot, none of them in any better condition than Hige's. There was a moment when I swore my heart stopped with the engine's complaining rattle, but then Kiba pushed open his door and Hige hurried around to help him hobble over to the rest of our group. Pops and I moved to follow, but when Pops lifted the rifle, I came to a decision. "You still have your revolver?" I asked, delicately setting the automatic pistol down and trying to squelch the part of me that screamed at my hand for its stupidity. Pops nodded, touching the front of his jacket. "Then let's see what he does when he thinks we're unarmed."

My father looked as reluctant to leave his rifle as I felt about leaving the pistol. "You sure that's a good idea?"

I thought about the promise I'd made to Toboe concerning his boyfriend, and the one I'd made to Tsume concerning my brother. "If we have to take him down, Toboe would understand it better if he saw what wolves are like."

Pops glanced towards the other four, milling together and headed towards the building. "He'd better damn well understand if that monster tries anything." Even so, he lowered the rifle into place next to the pistol and pushed the lock down before shutting the door. We strode quickly to catch up with the boys.


	26. In a Hysterical Realm

A/N: Fortunately for certain wolves, they don't belong to me. Thanks go to Words without for the beta job. There are some references to "Shots in Paradise" and "Tougher Than Leather" in here, if you haven't read the prologues, but most of the big details should be understandable. Yes, did I mention that it was _insanely_ long? I'm making up for the end in advance.

* * *

"Cole is a manipulative bitch, in every sense of the term, but we can trust her to patch us up," Tsume said, leading the way towards the small clinic between the launderers and the run-down looking café. The vet's place was a hole in the wall, but the smell wasn't bad enough to drive away custom, at least.

"How do you know we can trust her? What's to stop her from turning you in?" Hige asked, staggering a little under the wolf man's weight.

"That's blackmail for me to know and you to benefit from," was all Tsume was willing to say as he opened the door.

The waiting room was all but deserted. A small placard had been left on the desk, imploring the customers to "please be patient while we take care of another patient." There were cartoonish representations of dogs and cats in bandages in the corners of it. The only other person in there was also without a pet within sight. He stood leaning against the far wall, looking more towards the entrance than the back. The man was tall, even taller than Pops or Tsume, and he had a deep, old scar down the left side of his rangy, wolfish face.

"No bullet wounds. No broken limbs on you. And you've never been one to complain about a chest cold. Is it possible that you've actually come looking for honest work, runt?" the stranger asked.

My little brother began to stutter a reply, but Tsume stepped in front of him, cutting him off. "He's not talking to you," the pale haired man said shortly. Tsume gave Toboe a quick warning glance before turning back to the tall stranger. "My pack needs information. You have it," he stated matter-of-factly, positioning himself firmly in front of Toboe.

"Your pack?" the man raised an eyebrow, his eyes passing over us with a sardonic gleam. "Look, runt, I've already had to put down two uprisings today, and I'd like to eat lunch before I deal with a third. Can we save this for later?"

Tsume shook his head. "You and Cole can keep your bunch of jackals. I'm not even looking for a territory fight right now."

"You mean you really have given yourself over to the humans?" the scarred stranger asked disbelievingly. "And you used to look sickened whenever one of us so much as mentioned the arrangement."

"That's because it is sickening. I've got the humans eating out of my hands, working for my benefit." Pops snarled openly at this, and Hige and Toboe were barely choking back the same questions I was. Humans? I hated to think what might be going through my brother's head. "And what have you got, Zali? Old table scraps and dead elders. How long is that going to last?"

"How long until you push yourself too far?" The man who did not think of himself as a man walked forward, touching the large X shaped scar on Tsume's chest. "You have your reminder of the price of too much pride. We don't lead an easy life, but we can keep living it, as long as we have the strength. You, runt? They'd kill you before they even realized that you were a wolf."

Tsume swatted the tawny haired man's hand away. "They have to catch me first."

"That means you'll be running until your strength gives out, and you'd best hope that none of your pet humans takes it into their heads to bite you," the tall man said, nodding at Pops. My father returned his gaze coolly, his hand twitching for his rifle. I suddenly wished that I hadn't made him leave it in the car.

"Pet humans?" Tsume snorted. "Take a closer look, Zali. This is my pack." He stepped sideways, leaving my brother face to face with the monster. I let go of Pop's shoulder to reach for my brother, and Pop's hand touched Toboe's shoulder at the same time as my own. Beside me, Hige squeezed my free hand, his knuckles white between my dark fingers. Only the white wolf in human form seemed unmoved by the offered examination.

Zali considered us each in turn, a hand stroking his cleft chin. "You sure about the old man? He has the scent, but if that's an illusion, it's a damn fine one."

"I don't bother with any illusions," Pops said, reaching for the revolver he had stored inside his flak jacket.

Tsume raised a hand to stay my father's draw. "Let me handle this, old man." The insult seemed doubly biting. Seeing the white wolf change his form in the blink of an eye had been unnerving enough; standing in the room with three of the beasts and not a weapon on me froze my bones to ice. "No, I don't know. Kiba's the only one I've seen change. But they're willing to follow us to paradise, and that's good enough for us." At Hige's side, the white wolf nodded, a grim half smile upon his pale human features.

"Paradise," Zali repeated, touching the scar on his cheek. "You know what looking for it brought for our pack."

"The tunnel was gassed. Soldiers had surrounded the outside. You fought well enough that some of you escaped, but it broke you down, broke your spirits. You lost your purpose that day." The blue-green eyes that a piece of me insisted upon seeing as yellow locked sharply with the tall man's.

"Who are you?" Zali asked. I looked forward to the day when we could get a straight answer for that question.

"Someone who you met a lifetime ago," the white wolf said with a slight tip of his head, leaning backwards against my fiancé's supporting arm. "Do you remember where the tree of all seeds was planted?"

"Every pup who's heard the fairy tale knows that it's been planted in the deepest ravine of the tallest mountain in all the world. Start looking in the Himalayas." Zali shrugged. "But why the interest in the tree? It's the flower smell that will get you to paradise."

"I just need to see the tree first," the white wolf said, looking away.

"They're crazy," Pops muttered sotto voice into Toboe's and my ears. I just nodded.

"But we're still following them," my brother rejoined mildly.

"If somebody's got to save the world, it may as well be us," I quoted my father.

His dark eyes widened slightly in remembrance and crinkled in the corners. "They're not turning me into a wolf, and they're not stealing you away."

"We're saving them from whatever witches might be out there," my brother added in a whisper, his eyes on Tsume.

As if he had sensed the eyes on the back of his head, the taller of the two to bear the nickname "Runt" shifted on his heel; his expression a silent apology to my brother. Someday, I would have to ask Tsume where that had come from. Like my brother, the white-blond was rather skinny, but he was a head taller than Toboe and me, easily matching Pops, at least, if not the giant who called himself a wolf.

"You weren't in the tunnel, were you? I don't remember seeing you around the city," Zali questioned the white wolf.

"No, not then. I heard about it later," Kiba answered him; the white wolf's eyes drifting back to the waiting sign. "But beyond the tunnel, where would we go from there?"

"How should I know?" the tall, tawny haired man asked. "We never got past the poison within it."

"But you could smell the flowers?" the white wolf continued doggedly.

Zali closed his eyes, sighing in memory. "How could we not? You remember all I do about that trip, Tsume. Why bring up that which is best left buried?"

"Because it's better than working at nothing important until we lose all strength. It's probably a lost cause, but it's still a cause. How long since you had one of those?" Tsume stepped back, not quite standing between us and the wolfish giant, but within range to help any of us if we needed it.

"I'm keeping the pack in line and out of trouble, which is more than anyone can say for you." Zali circled sideways, moving towards the wounded white wolf.

Tsume sidled to intercept him. "And a fine job you've been doing at it," he said sarcastically. "Maybe if you gave them something more to hope for, they wouldn't be so ready to go after your throat."

"Maybe if you hadn't turned your back on us, we wouldn't have gone for yours." The white-blond lowered his head at the giant's harsh words, looking pained. Toboe loosed himself from our grips and moved next to his boyfriend, placing an arm around his waist. Tsume glanced down at his smaller companion, his expression a mix of thankfulness and exasperation.

"There's no hope to be found in fairy tales for pups. They just bring back bad memories."

Tsume waited a few silent heartbeats before wrapping a dark, leather-clad arm about my brother's shoulders, standing much as I'd often seen them do when they argued with Pops. "It never quite healed right, that scar across your cheek," Tsume observed.

"Neither did your chest. Cole didn't have what she needed back then. It's my job to see that she gets it now, for the sakes of all our pack," Zali said, sticking his hands back into the pockets of his striped parka.

"So why not go where you can get it?" Tsume asked.

"I can get supplies here, and I don't put my life on the line to get them." The tall wolf man shrugged, his gaze flickering briefly to the interior of the clinic.

"Just your status and your pride," Tsume said.

"Are you two ever gonna get any information out of this guy, or is this just a pissing contest?" Hige asked the white wolf. Kiba shook his head and motioned for silence, although a small grin flickered over that strange, stoic face.

"I'll worry about my pride, runt. And with any luck, Cole and I have found another way besides challenger fights to confirm our alpha status." Tsume raised an eyebrow at this, and Zali nodded an affirmative to the unspoken question. "I'd rather be able to share stories about their uncles with my pups than fill their heads with nonsense about paradise, but there's one black sheep whose story I can't tell, as it's playing out right now."

A slow grin spread over my little brother's face, and the questions he had been holding back overwhelmed him. "This is your brother, Tsume? And he's having kids? Congratulations!" Zali nodded his thanks, a smile twitching the corners of his mouth vaguely upwards as Toboe continued on. "I didn't know you still had family around; you never seem to talk about them."

"There's the understatement of the year," our father muttered, crossing his arms in front of him.

"He's not my brother," Tsume said flatly. Truthfully, I couldn't find too much family resemblance between the two; both men might be tall, thin, and yellow eyed, but Tsume was as dark-skinned as I was, where Zali's skin tone was something closer to the weather-beaten ruddy tan of Pops, and my brother's boyfriend lacked the sharp angles of the older wolf man's features to his face. But then, I would have to be the first to admit that looks might well mean very little when it came to identifying one's family.

"You were always closer to Cole than me, really," Zali said. "Good to see you've found yourself a wolf, runt."

My brother blushed, rubbing his head with his free hand. "Thanks, I think, but I'm more of the runt around here. I'm not even a wolf, I don't think."

"Some forget what they are as the world is reborn," Kiba said from behind him. Toboe looked puzzled at this statement, and Hige shook his head at the white wolf.

Tsume leaned into my little brother, his body language motioning for quiet. "Don't get too friendly with him, runt. It's not safe."

"Neither is paradise." The tawny haired man stepped closer, continuing to circle towards Pops in the rear of our group. "I might imagine that some young pups that grew up without the tales might bite at a chance to search. I might even believe it of our runt; you've still got that puppy bravery to you, Tsume, even after all these years on your own." Toboe had held his boyfriend from pacing after the elder wolf, but one could chart Zali's progress from the turn of Tsume's rattail. "But you, old man? You don't look like the type to be pulled in by fairy tales."

"I'm not," Pops said, stepping towards him so as to insure that there was some space between us and the tall wolf. "This your firstborn your wife's carrying?" Zali nodded. "Talk to me in about five years, and then you'll understand." Pops chuckled, glancing back towards Toboe and me. "Hell, you'll start to understand soon as they cry. I don't particularly care where the road leads me as long as my kids are safe - I'll take my share of troubles as they come. But if you can supply us with the pathway, it'll make things easier on your runt as well as mine. Otherwise they'll just run on without us." Tsume actually flinched under Zali's gaze at that sentence.

"Yeah, they usually do," the tawny-haired wolf said dryly. "They say that in order to reach Paradise, you need the flower smell to guide you to the tree, wolf's blood to open the pathway, and the gem to pay for passage."

Kiba had been nodding to himself up until the last item, but the white wolf shifted awkwardly against Hige's steadying arm when Zali mentioned the gem. "What does this gem look like?"

"I've never seen it," Zali said. "But Cole's father, our old alpha, used to always tell me that it was black and round, big enough to fill your palm. It's said to have been kept in the hands of the nobles, so we followed the flower scent first."

"Well, there's a job for you, Tsume," Hige spoke up.

"I'm not the one with a personal connection to the nobles," Tsume snapped back. Pissing contests, indeed!

"Still, the scent won't do us much good by itself, will it?" I asked, stepping to Pop's side. "What's this passage that needs paying?"

"There's a seal on the gate. It's possible to break it without the gem, but it's not easy." Zali had reached the door of the clinic now, blocking the exit. "It could well mean the end of this world."

That was entirely the wrong thing to say. Pop's eyes flashed, all tenuous bonds of shared fatherhood experience snapping. "Not that that seemed to stop you from trying to enter without it, did it? I knew you wolves meant nothing but trouble." My father leaned forward, reaching for his pistol, but he was nowhere near fast enough. The tall, wolfish stranger made Tsume's earlier stunt with his knife look positively sluggish in comparison as he gripped Pop's wrist, blocking the fist and avoiding the foot my father swung at him with equal ease.

"I really was not looking for another fight," Zali sighed, sending me tumbling when I ran at him as well. "Tsume, if you cannot keep your pets under control, we'll really have to insist upon some form of restraint." Rising from the floor, I saw that it was Tsume and Kiba holding Toboe and Hige back now. Oh,_ hell_.

We were in a hostage situation, and I'd been stupid enough to trust these wolves and enter their lair unarmed. Of course Tsume and Kiba had helped us against that robot; their lives had been on the line, too. We should have taken Kiba and turned back to Freeze City. Sure, Toboe had been with Tsume in front of us, but surely Tsume wouldn't hurt my little brother; the white-blond had said he loved the boy, hadn't he? So why was he holding Toboe back from helping our father now?

"Anybody ever teach you that it's not right to hit a lady or an old man, you bastard?" Hige growled, pushing the white wolf behind him. "You okay, Blue?" I nodded, rubbing my shoulder and rising from the floor. My hand felt damp and slightly sticky, but there was no way that Zali could have bitten me, was there? There was no way my shoulder could be bleeding, so I ignored the blood and the pain for now. I would worry about whatever the wolf could have infected me with when he didn't have a death grip on my father's wrist.

"It's not right to try to shoot a man simply for warning you, either." Zali barely glanced at Hige, although Kiba had dropped to all fours and tugged at Hige's hoodie with his jaws in an attempt to hold him back. The white wolf could have done worse, even as injured as he was, I supposed, but Kiba was not endearing himself to me. "A wolf helps his pack first, and it's been a long time since the runt has pulled his weight as a member of this pack. You're lucky to have encountered me first and not Wormwood or Moss. They're not as kind to strays and cowards as I am."

Tsume growled, his arms tightening about my brother. He'd stepped forward himself now, but he motioned me away from taking another run at the tall wolf man. "Yaiden," he said, making our last name sound somewhere between a warning and a curse. "Yaiden, let me handle this."

"You're one of them, aren't you?" Toboe looked up into the face of the man holding him back. A part of me insisted that the sorrow in his voice was a good thing; the runt might be scared and regretful now, but now he'd be tougher for it. Now he'd know to listen to our father's instincts, and so would I. There'd be no confusion anymore.

But dammit, it hurt to see him look so betrayed. Tsume looked back down at my brother, his face sober and grim, and for a moment, I could dredge up a hint of sympathy for him, as well. "I'm a wolf, Toboe. My relationship with Zali is... complicated, but I'm not going to destroy any world with you in it." They still held each other, but it wasn't in order to keep each other back. I hoped they wouldn't do so unintentionally.

"Blue. Quent. Zali. Back the hell off." Tsume hadn't lifted his head from my brother's, but I could feel that yellow-eyed stare burning straight at me. The tawny-haired wolf gave us a warning nod before loosing his grip on my father's wrist and taking a step back. The skin around Pop's arm was an angry red and indented, but not broken. Still, it looked more like tooth marks than fingernails.

"It's not that complicated, runt." As quickly as Kiba might shift from white wolf to dark-haired man and back again, a huge, dark gray wolf stood where Zali the man once had. Pop's eyes widened, and I put a hand to his elbow, reminding him of his hand and the wolves behind us.

Dragging Kiba from his coattail, Hige moved to shelter me within his arms, glancing nervously towards my shoulder. "You knew you were... and you still..." He pointed between Toboe and his boyfriend. "I knew you were sick, Tsume," he spat at self-admitted wolf as he passed. "No, it's not complicated. I don't really give a damn if you're a wolf or not, but you don't hurt those I love. I guess it's kinda like the pack thing for you wolves: you mess with mine, and you mess with me."

"So keep them out of my den, porky." Maybe there was some relation between this gray monster and Tsume after all. "Now go. You too, runt. You've gotten more than enough from us." The giant wolf circled back towards the exam rooms, raising a lip to snap at the white-blond's flank. Tsume moved to avoid it, but not quickly. He was trying to keep himself between Zali and Toboe.

When those jaws closed around Tsume's leg, it was no longer a man holding my brother, but two gray wolves circling him: the smaller, lighter colored one weaving about the runt's legs, turning to bite at the heavier, darker wolf nipping at his heels. Toboe tripped, falling to the floor right in front of the fighting pair of canines.

"Stay back." With one last warning tug on Hige's hoodie, Kiba sprinted into the brawl as well, attempting to leap at the dark giant as he had the robot. Zali was not to be taken down so easily, however. Knocking the silvery gray into the waiting room chairs, the charcoal-colored wolf met Kiba on his way down, intercepting the snow-white animal with his jaws.

Hige, god love him, didn't listen, stealing around Zali's rear to attempt to wrestle him to the ground. When that shrill, high-pitched whistle blew, there were four males tangled on the floor, with my little brother trying to crawl away, and Pops had at last withdrawn his revolver from his coat. I put my hands over my ears, trying to block out the noise.

"OUT!" The woman who emerged from the rear of the vet clinic looked bedraggled, as if she had just pulled herself out of bed, but her spine was straight and her tone was commanding. "Zali, sweetheart, you should know better than to start a dogfight in the waiting room. And Tsume, I do wish you wouldn't encourage him. I'm not looking for groveling, tough guy, just a little common sense." She ran a hand nervously through her long hair, the other resting upon her rounded womb at the sight of Pop's gun. "Great Spirit, you'd think one of us was in heat," she muttered.

The lighter gray pulled away from the tangle of bodies, licking blood from his muzzle and walking haltingly towards my brother. As soon as he reached Toboe, Tsume flickered back into his normal shape, looking worse for wear, for all he tried to hide it. Our runt flinched from him at first, but when the dark fingers dragging him to his feet failed to turn into teeth, Toboe grabbed his boyfriend back, leading Tsume towards Pops and the exit.

"Come on, guys," Toboe said, pushing open the door. "We're in over our heads, Pops. You couldn't kill them all; you shouldn't try to. It's not worth fighting them," my brother told our father in an undertone, watching nervously as the older woman and I retrieved our significant others from the dog pile. Kiba remained in wolf form, raising a lip at Zali as he limped after Hige and me.

"I can sure as hell take down one of them." My father whipped his revolver from where he had trained it earlier, upon Zali. There was no time to block it. There was no time to dodge it, even with lightning-quick reflexes.

My brother shouted in horror, but Tsume had already hit the ground.


	27. Rose Above the Noise and Confusion

A/N: Fortunately for them, I don't own any of the wolves, because, as the song goes, I'm eeeevil.

As an "Amen!" to 0000's review: Warg is the only outright evil villian to be associated with this piece, however; I'm too fond of anti-heroes and antagonists on a mission to feature the Wolf's Rain equivalents of fanon!ebil!rapist!drunkard!Denethor. (Because really, Quent and Moss? Can you say shoehorned into thankless, mindlessly antagonistic roles in at least fifty percent of the fics they even appear in? Because there's a difference between "drinking until you can't stand, let alone think straight, then trying to shoot the 'vicious' beasts you hold responsible for your family's deaths" and throwing beer bottles at your dog and/or kid for no reason, just like there's a difference "beating the tar out of the guy who just waltzed into town and insulted your pack" and trying to rape every Sue that passes your way. Even Darcia gets worse than he deserves from time to time.) But yeah, that's my rant platform for the day, brought to you by too many years as a member of the Society for the Protection of Canonical Denethor railing against the host of one-dimensional LotR Suefics on the Pit. On to the story. Thanks to Words Without, the true hero of this fic, for the beta, and all those who have reviewed it!

* * *

When Zali's pack had first come to this island nigh on ten years ago, the city had just begun to take off. Considering its prime shipping location, the nobles had been doing all they could to maintain that growth. Growth, in their minds, had not included its uncanny ability to attract wolves via the lunar flower scent wafting from the long, partially underwater tunnel leading south of the island. In order to try and stop the beasts, they tried everything from poisoning the tunnel to shooting the packs down as soon as they revealed themselves.

Zali's pack had been subjected to both treatments. The nobles had used them as an example, a warning to other wolves. Zali had lost many a companion that day, whether to bullets, like Flint, to rage and vengeful bloodlust, like old Pete, their former alpha, or simply to fear, like their runt. Zali felt partially responsible for the last. If he had just been able to hold Tsume back before the damn headstrong boy had rushed into that deathtrap…

But that was a long time ago. The only part of this city that was growing these days was the graveyard. Zali had never thought that he'd be watching the runt (still a brother, as much as Moss was; Zali and Tsume had joined the pack at the same time, as a brainless dark gray youngster with an equally stupid silver pup dangling from his jaws by the scruff, both of them covered in ice, Tsume too cold and tired to walk any more despite his protests),_ his_ runt get shot a second time in this decaying boom town.

"I've got a few reasons not to destroy the world myself, old man," Zali growled, knocking the shooter to the ground. "But Great Spirit help me, I will not hesitate to end yours if you try to take them away from me, and your pups don't scare me."

The dark gray wolf snarled at the white and the human-shaped couple behind him. The white had the most control over his form and was the most likely to attack without warning, but he was injured and wary. The chubby brown haired male, the one that had been stupid enough to jump into a dogfight in human form with no protection, he was the most likely to retaliate.

Or perhaps the girl. She was scared, as frightened by her father's actions as Zali had been, but she was loyal to the old man and she smelled like gunpowder. She wouldn't try to leap at him barehanded again, but Zali kicked away the revolver, half-afraid that she'd try to finish the job if she had a handgun within her grasp.

Frankly, he would relish a fight right now.

Cole and the runt's runt had bent over Tsume, trying to stanch the bleeding, check his breathing, immobilize his shoulder so that the broken collarbone didn't pierce a lung, if it hadn't already.

"Toboe," Tsume groaned, flickering in and out of his human cloak despite his obvious efforts to cling to it.

The redhead just smoothed back his lover's hair, not daring to touch anything below the rattail. "Just rest. We'll talk later, where we're safe." Golden eyes closed in compliance, and the boy shot Cole and Zali nervous glances.

So much for a quiet afternoon with his mate.

"You're a little late for that, wolf." The old man had the gall to laugh. "It ended a long time ago. Only Blue and Toboe could bring much of it back, and I'm not giving my boy up to your kind."

"Pops, easy," the girl cautioned him, turning a bright blue-eyed glare upon Zali. She took hold of her father's shoulder, warning the wolf away, much as his mate would send him from a wounded pack member who needed to heal without the temptation of yet another dominance battle. Zali could not quite catch a flicker of the wolf beneath the dark-skinned woman, but her mate, the heavy brunet, was unconsciously showing more fang than her father would likely be pleased with if the old man really did hate wolves around his pups.

"Hey, we already had plenty of reasons why they'd never work, right?" The porky young male said, trying to pass off his snarl as a sardonic grin. "Age gap, racial gap, religious differences, socio-economic differences, oh, and let's not forget the real kicker: Tsume's an asshole. What's a mere difference in species matter in the face of true love?"

"Watch yourself, Hige. There's more than a little that applies to us. Besides, it's unwise to speak ill of the dead." The girl had to have said that, didn't she?

"Who the hell's dead? The runt has a damned target on his chest and the old man still missed his vitals." Zali moved over to Cole and her patient and motioned for the white wolf to lift from the other side. The redhead hovered anxiously, all his attention on the injured silver wolf lifted between them, but Cole didn't contradict her mate just yet.

She directed Zali and the silent white wolf with the eerie gaze towards the nearest exam room, but held the door open once they were through. "Blue, isn't?" the pregnant she-wolf motioned for the girl. "May as well take a look at your shoulder, too."

The younger female's dark fingers strayed to her shoulder as she helped her old man to his feet. Zali had not bitten her deeply, but the scent of blood was not entirely coming from him, Tsume, and Kiba.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," the old man said. "You've got your own to look after." He turned towards his son, regret shadowing his features for only an instant before resuming an air of untouchable authority. "Toboe, come home, son. I'll let 'em go, even Kiba. Let's just get out of here."

The little redheaded runt didn't turn around. "Go if you want. I'm staying with Tsume."

"Toboe…" his sister murmured in despair. There was a jingle of keys flying through the air, and then one last set of steps followed them into the exam room.

It was the brown haired man who caught the door from Cole. "Take him home, Blue. Keep yourselves safe. I'll watch after the runt."

"But Hige, they're _wolves_." The girl's blue eyes widened in horror.

Her mate just shrugged. "Wolves, men, walking trees, whatever. Somebody's gotta make sure that we all find our homes, sooner or later." He looked towards the redhead, who was following Cole's procedure just as silently and grimly as Kiba and Zali. "But for Toboe, it might probably be better if that was later. I'll leave my phone on; call me once you hit civilization."

"Just be sure you can answer it," Blue told him tightly.

"Of course," Hige said, scratching the back of his head. "This paradise sounds like an interesting place. They oughta have decent reception."

"Just watch your back, boy," the old man said. "I'll trust you to look after Toboe, but you can't trust these wolves." The old man couldn't, certainly. Zali didn't have to turn to see him tremble. It was enough to smell the rank fear upon the self-declared man, overpowering even the scent of wolf that clung to him. It was always possible that the scent was merely from the young ones, Zali supposed. They hadn't had many new wolves, much less humans traveling with wolves, on the island in the past few years.

"Toboe, I'm sorry," the girl said softly, lowering her eyes. "I'll be hearing from both of you, so don't get hurt." She and the old man glanced back as they walked away, regret as heavy upon them as blood, but Toboe didn't look up. Zali could smell the tears running down the boy's face.


	28. Free My Worried Mind

A/N: Who do you think owns Wolf's Rain? The Warg who references Semisonic around spilt screwdrivers? Words without was kind enough to beta.

I'm loving the giant, detailed reviews, here, guys. While I do have chapters addressing some of your concerns, including the wierd jewel from the OVAs, Quent's history, certain wolves' thoughts on interspecies yaoi, (though I hesitate to sum up an entire species' opinion, given how much humans' notions about certain ideas can vary,) and all that Jupiter Jazz coming up already, this story isn't done yet, and knowing what my readers are looking forward to helps assure fast updates, as they motivate me to keep a step ahead in the unbetaed chapters.

* * *

I started the car in silence, letting my head drop into an open palm with a sigh when the motor turned over on the first try. I didn't want to lift it. I felt another hand stroke the top of my head, ruffling my hair as if I were a little girl again. I hated to admit it, but after everything else, it felt nice.

"Pops? I think I need the shotgun." If only I knew what exactly I needed it for…

"They'll be all right, Blue," my father said. "Hige'll convince Toboe to come home, and the two of them'll stay safe until we can come back with the cavalry." He offered me a weary smile when I at last raised my head. We'd been beaten, but it took more than a few wolf bites to defeat a Yaiden. I just wasn't sure what we were fighting for. _Dammit, runt_…

I could just blame this all on Toboe, I guess. He's the one with the crazy boyfriend who turned into a wolf. He was the one who found that other wolf, that wanted criminal, and tried to bring it home. He was the one who was insane enough to stay with killer beasts straight out of a nightmare when they'd injured his father and his sister. He was the one I'd made that promise to, only to see it broken so suddenly and painfully.

I hadn't broken it, part of me insisted. Tsume had proven himself a wolf, and that fell under the category of "seriously wrong" all by itself. But what had he and Kiba actually done? Even Zali had only attacked when provoked, and I was sure that those teeth could have done more than graze my shoulder. _"You have your reminder of the price of too much pride." _Where had Tsume gotten that scar?

I backed out of the lot and turned onto a thoroughfare, hoping that the requirements of driving would pull my thoughts away from such brooding. It had been a while since I'd been behind the wheel…

"Turn here," Pops directed me to the left.

"Are you sure? I thought the bridge to Freeze City would be on the right." All the same, I didn't hesitate. I trusted him. I had to.

Pops shrugged, but waved me to the left, twisting down another side street until a familiar-looking flashing sign came into view. I'd never been to this particular city before, but just as I could scent a target once I know what I'm looking for, my father has an uncanny knack for finding the closest bar. I have no idea how he does it, but I can't deny that the old man has the skill. "Pull over, Blue. I think we both could use one."

"I probably shouldn't," I said, hitting the turn signal and easing into the leftmost lane.

"Come in, at least. Don't like to think of you sitting out here alone in this damn strange city," Pops patted my head again as I entered the parking lot. Neither of us looked at the rifle and the automatic still sitting in the backseat where we had left them in hopes of solving this peacefully. "Not when there're wolves about." He shuddered, flexing his right hand as if in remembrance of the giant's grip. My eyes had told me that those had been fingers, but Pop's indentations and my shoulder told me teeth.

"All right," I said, grousing halfheartedly. "Somebody has to help you back to the car, anyway." This time I pulled my pistol from the back, holstering it upon my hip. My father nodded approvingly as he slipped his rifle beneath his coat. Locking the car, we made our way into the bar.

Like most of the rest of this city, from what I'd seen, the place wasn't exactly clean and modern. A trio of men - station laborers most likely, judging from their droopingly tired but well muscled limbs and their solid, practical, but mismatching clothes - sat at the bar, grumbling into their drinks and glancing halfheartedly at the radio whenever the newscast devolved into static. This was a frequent enough occurrence that I couldn't even tell what the reporter was speaking about.

At the other small, dimly lit tables, surrounded by the usual collection of random knickknacks, sports memorabilia, and photographs of the island in better days, there were only a few customers, most giving off the same odor of resigned drunkenness that the three at the bar were. One of them was nursing a swelling black eye as well as a beer. "You new around here, girlie?" he called.

"She's been here long enough to pick a fight with Zali," the biggest of the three at the bar shot back. How had he known? The man tugged at the brim of his cap in a parody of a grand welcoming gesture. Beneath it, his graying hair was a dark violet-black, not quite as vibrant as that of the wolf man's wife, but close enough that one barely had to see the baggy yellow eyes to make the connection. How many were there in this city? "Welcome to the closest place you can get to Paradise. Have one on us, girlie."

"No, thanks," I said, placing one hand in front of Pops and the other hovering above my gun. He had grabbed my shoulder as if to hide the slowly mending wound.

"Suit yourself." The dark-haired man shrugged.

"Lucky old bastard," I heard his blond companion mutter. It was hard to believe anyone might be more bleary-eyed than the big laborer in the cap without having just been awoken, but this guy managed it. He bothered me, and considering that my nerves were already shot to hell, I didn't bother to try to pinpoint an exact reason.

Pops obviously didn't care for him, either. "You want to say that a little louder? I think you managed to just insult my momma, my wife, and my daughter, let alone me. Not bad for three words."

The blond looked ready to respond, but the big darker-haired man cut him off. "Not now, Wormwood. We're not here to pick a fight, old man." He motioned to the bartender for a refill. "Sit down and have a drink. I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding."

Somehow I found that statement less than comforting. The accompanying smile was even less so. Pops gave them one more warning glare before seating himself as far from the trio as possible, leaving only one stool between him and the end of the bar, which he motioned me towards. "Vodka," he ordered, once the bartender turned towards us. My father patted my hand, a silent suggestion to go ahead and order whatever I wanted; he would watch for trouble.

I appreciated it, but those three at the bar and the others scattered about the tables just might be wolves. Alcohol would not make me any more comfortable around them. It wouldn't get Toboe and Hige out of that clinic, either. It couldn't turn Tsume back into a normal, if somewhat suspicious-looking man or Kiba back into a large white dog of uncertain origins.

"May as well make it a split screwdriver, then," I said, running my fingertips against the grain of the bar. Interesting to see a place that still used a wooden countertop; most of the dives my father patronized in Freeze City had switched over to something resembling plastic, tile, metal, or some other smooth, laminated surface. All the better for cleaning up spills… or bloodstains…

"Don't think I've heard of that one," the bartender remarked. He didn't look like a wolf, at least, but I wasn't sure if I could tell the difference. Tsume had never smelled like the wild, like Kiba had, although the scents of wet leather, musk, and gasoline from his bike were usually pretty heavy on my brother's boyfriend. Kiba didn't have those yellow eyes like Tsume, Zali, or Cole - at least not in human form. Those blue-green irises were intense enough.

This guy, though, had eyes as dark as my father's, and a build that did not suggest he regularly went running off in search of paradise. The skull tattoo on his arm, bandana atop his head, and cigarette hanging from his mouth reinforced the impression: _he's human_. Thank god; they're not all wolves around here.

"It's easy enough: Pops takes the screw, and I'll need the driver," I completed the joke feebly. It was an old one, a bad one that my father had used when I was underage and accompanying him into drinking establishments, but even that half-baked double-entendre struck me as somewhat entertaining in my current mood. There were wolves - real, live wolves around. With everything else changing, why shouldn't that be funny for a change?

"Right, miss." He served us poker-faced, although he hovered at our end of the bar, cleaning empty glasses and shooting us curious looks from time to time.

"You shouldn't have shot him," I murmured to Pops, trying not to let the color of my drink remind me too much of my brother's coat.

My father took a long gulp of his vodka, not looking me in the eye. "You're right," he said grudgingly, swirling his glass. "The texts aren't very specific, but the illustrations suggest that it'll be a white wolf leading them, when the time comes. I just can't stand to lose Toboe, too."

"Whether it's him or not, he's our target. We shouldn't forget that. We can't forget that."

Not anymore. Tsume would survive, or he wouldn't; there wasn't much I could do about it right now. I wasn't even sure if I preferred it one way or the other at the moment. It wouldn't change the fact that Toboe would be upset. Hell, the runt was probably furious with us, and I could barely blame him for it. As long as he and Hige were safe, I'd accept his anger. We could work our way back to something resembling normal from there. But if it were Toboe, let alone my lover, that ended up dependent on the wolves' mercy for his life, I wouldn't have left that clinic, either.

_But aren't they?_

I wanted something stronger than orange juice.

We would have to go back in. Pops and I would set this right. I just didn't know how.


	29. On the Phone, Long, Long Distance

A/N: Not my anime. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

* * *

"Hey, Doc, sorry I didn't leave a written request, but you know how these things come up." Hige Wolfe paced the hall in the rear of the small clinic, the phone tucked against his cheek. "Somebody has to keep the in-laws from taking out a city block or two when they start fighting, you know?"

"Well, I suppose you've earned a few days off," Dr. Cher Degre-Lebowski sighed at the other end of the line.

"Coming from the lady who knows better than anyone about earned days off, that's good to hear." Hige figured it never hurt to add in the complements when it came to the women who were in charge of his paycheck. Besides, he liked Doctor D. She worked too hard for _anybody's _good, but she meant well. The fact that the senior scientist of Project Moonflower had inadvertently introduced him to Blue didn't hurt in Hige's estimation, either.

This earned him a weak chuckle. "Nothing like relationships to pull you away from the office, I suppose. Not that I know much on that subject, though, evidently."

"Mm," Hige grunted sympathetically. "Big fight with the detective?"

"No, not really. Hubb still doesn't understand, but I suppose I should count myself lucky that it's going as well as it is. An amicable divorce. I didn't think such things existed." There was another self-mocking laugh. "Ah, but never mind us jaded old folks. It's just more flawed data for you and Blue to learn from. Dare I ask what sort of in-law trouble is keeping my best intern away?"

"Aw, Doc, you don't mean that," Hige said. "You're not that old. Honestly, though, you're definitely not completely off the ball when it comes to the whole relationship game. You know Blue's younger brother?"

"Toboe," she affirmed.

"Nobody gave _his _boyfriend the list of forbidden topics not to bring up around Quent Yaiden." _And how Tsume had "brought it up!" _Doctor D would think Hige had gone crazy if he told her in any more detail.

He wasn't completely sure he hadn't gone a little crazy, himself. He wasn't really scared of Tsume and Kiba and Zali, Hige told himself; they just… made him uncomfortable. The wolves were pretty strange, right enough, and they had the potential to be dangerous, but Quent had definitely shown that they weren't untouchable. Hell, Hige figured that he might've been able to take Zali down if he'd been given a little more time.

"What set him off so badly? Hubb said that the four of you had taken off for parts unknown with no planned date for your return." So her husband had given her Hige's message. That was Detective Lebowski in a nutshell: loyal to his friends even when both other parties involved were pushing him away.

"Well, when the punk started talking about wolves, it wasn't exactly a pun on my last name." That was safe enough to share, Hige supposed. It didn't sound too nuts, at least on his end.

"What did he say about wolves?" Cher sounded almost too interested in the answer. That wasn't friendly chatter, or even the mournful tone she used for discussing her faltering personal life. That was one hundred percent Degre research focus. Hige knew his boss harbored a clandestine fondness for fairytales, but the interest in wolves sounded even deeper than that. It sounded almost as if he might have stumbled upon some secret information for Project Moonflower. He had never been entirely certain what Lady Jaguara's eventual goal with the project was, after all. But what could wolves have to do with flowers?

"Er, well, it's kind of nuts," Hige stalled for thinking time. "He pretty much implied that they're still around." _Like in the other room…_

"Odd. He didn't have any proof for this claim, did he?" The intern could practically see his boss scribbling down notes in his mind's eye.

Hige laughed her off, avoiding eye contact with Kiba as the white wolf in human form opened the door leading into Tsume's examination room, curious as to what had set the young brown-haired man off. "What proof could you have?"

"Good question," his boss replied. "You think you'll get home soon?" she asked.

"Depending on how severe Tsume's injuries are and how long it takes us to pull the runt out of his pout, we'll be moving again in maybe a week or two," Hige said, although honestly, he had no idea how long it would take. "The punk said that there's someplace where we can see real wolves though, and to be honest, I'm kinda curious." In the same way he'd be curious about seeing a train wreck, but it wasn't a complete lie.

"Me, too, Hige. Look into it, if you get the chance." He had been hoping she would be, even as a part of him insisted that telling her even as much as he had had been a mistake. Well, what was done was done; Hige could only try to make sure Toboe was in one piece when he finally managed to drag the runt home. Besides, Hige Wolfe was curious.


	30. It'll Give Me Time to Think

A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words Without for betaing! Thanks, also, to BlackFox12, MissxMaddi, MaximumWarriorsParadise, and PoetofLife14 for letting Gauss hang with the gang in the After Paradise forum. It saved me from having him steal this fic.

* * *

"Hey girlie, old man." The fellow with the black eye had approached the bar as if to get another drink, but was stopped and waved over by the trio at the other end. There had been some whispering that I hadn't cared to pay close attention to, and then the bruised man strolled over to our end of the bar. "We were wondering just how bad your encounter with the big bad wolf was."

"What business is it of yours?" Pops took another sip of his vodka. He was on his third glass; I alternated between the juice and a mostly full bottle of tequila. One trick that I'd never learned from my father was how to hold my rotgut.

"Moss wants to make sure that visitors to this city get a nice impression of us. Zali doesn't make for a very nice impression. You two… look like you might be able to help us help you; you get what I'm saying?" He nodded toward the gun at my hip. His smile was no more reassuring than the broad-built dark-haired man's had been.

The man in question slid over behind his colleague, shaking his head and pushing the thinner man out of the way. "I'm not looking to have Zali killed, you understand. It might be better for all the pack if he were dead, but little sisters…" he clucked in mock-despair. "What is one to do with them?"

I raised the bottle in acknowledgement. "Devil take younger siblings and their crazy boyfriends." In my defense, I was more than a little tipsy by this point, but I obviously wasn't thinking straight.

"You sound as if you've got more reason to sympathize than Zali, girlie." The blocky-built laborer nodded approvingly.

Pops gave him a cold stare, cutting off any further response from me with a warning gesture. I wasn't drunk enough to ignore that, yet. "What the hell are you after, then?" he asked, placing a steadying arm about my shoulders.

"Just an opportunity to put things right," the man replied mildly, interlacing his fingers and cracking his knuckles with a twist of his arms. "Zali's an interloper, an usurper who's led this group down the wrong path since the day my father died. Can't say I agreed with the old man about everything, but he understood traditional values. Zali… he's no better than that queer little traitor he called brother. Shoulda known better than to trust either of them," he murmured. There were a few grunts of agreement from his drinking buddies at this statement. They seemed closer to us now.

"That doesn't sound like much of a plan," my father growled. Pops patted my shoulder awkwardly, trying to hide the tension in his hands. The other had left his shot glass and drifted towards his trenchcoat. Behind the bar, the bartender suddenly seemed extremely interested in the glasses he was polishing.

"Easy, old man, I haven't gotten there yet." There was something wrong with the man's teeth. Either the tequila had really played merry hell with my senses, or more than his canines were pointed. I'd guessed that he might well be another wolf, but my brain had not informed my viscera of what that implied. I prayed that Pops wouldn't do anything stupid, because if I were left to my own devices, I very much doubted that I'd be able to do anything smart. "All I'm asking for is a distraction at the train station, Sunday morning, sometime before ten. We can make it worth your while."

"What's today?" It felt like I'd been awake for weeks.

"Friday, Blue," Pops informed me. "Come on, you can sleep it off in the car." He pulled me to my feet, leaving his arm about me as much for his own support as to shield me from the wolves.

I was tired; exhausted, even, but I couldn't let myself forget the reason we'd come here. "We ought to catch Kiba. Everything'll be all right if we catch our target," I muttered to myself.

"Take the job, and we'll track him down," the graying-violet-haired man offered.

Pops didn't bother to look back. "We'll sleep on it."


	31. Not Fade Away

A/N: I don't own them. Words without was kind enough to beta.

* * *

"Dr. Cole?" The boy's voice wavered uncertainly, obviously not comfortable with the address, but lacking in alternatives. Even Zali had stepped out by this point, gruffly indicating a sleeping area to Kiba with the unspoken understanding that Hige and Toboe would be sharing it. Hige would, at least. The youngest member of Tsume's northern, humanoid pack was even more reluctant to leave Cole and her patient than her mate was.

Not that Cole much blamed the boy; she had had to stitch Zali up frequently enough that she knew the helplessness of sitting and waiting for a lover to heal. Even today, if their gray runt had not required such a rapid response, she probably would have needed to attend to her husband, as well as Tsume and Kiba. The white stranger and the charcoal alpha could lick their wounds for one night, though.

"Hmm?" The pregnant wolf glanced up towards the skylight before turning to answer the boy. The moon was waning, but it would be full enough.

"How do you do it?" Toboe motioned to the young man on the exam table before them, not quite daring to touch him. Cole was surprised to see Tsume expend all that energy on maintaining a human front, even when asleep, but a part of her was glad that he at least still had the focus to waste.

"Cut quickly and then make the stitches as small as I can," Cole replied, motioning to the bloody slug.

"I mean…" The redhead scratched nervously at the back of his head. "How do you do… that thing? How do you change so fast?"

"This is simply a projection." Cole dropped it to demonstrate. The youngster's eyes widened at the sight of the wolf. "It takes a certain amount of focus, yes, and if you wound us, it will carry over from form to form, but we are always wolves. We just have the ability to show the world a second skin."

Hesitantly, the boy reached to touch her fur, not quite believing his eyes. "But how do you…." He trailed off, jerking his hand back as she regained her human image.

"Make the stitches?" Cole finished for him, putting a hand to his shoulder. His eyes widened, but he didn't shrink away. "As I said, it takes a fair amount of concentration, but once you know the skill, you can make them very small indeed."

"That's good, then," the youngster murmured, dropping his eyes to look with bittersweet fondness at her patient once more. Slowly, he reached a small finger to stroke the dark, stubborn jaw-line, slowing his breathing as if he could will Tsume to take deeper lungfuls of air by moderating his own diaphragm.

Cole squeezed the young boy's shoulder. "He's not going to wake up anytime soon, even if things do go well. I promise you, the room we set your friends up with is close enough that you'll hear any change in his condition practically before I can."

"I know," Toboe said. "I just don't know if I can believe my eyes right now. A part of me is afraid he'll fade away if I'm not here. I know it's silly, but I would've said that the idea of meeting a wolf was silly, too." The redhead attempted a smile. Cole patted his shoulder once more before releasing it. "Best just to stay anyway, if you don't mind."

"You watch him then, Toboe. In the meantime, growing pups, delicate surgery, and a full bladder don't combine well," Cole excused herself. "All in all, you didn't do too badly for yourself, tough guy," she murmured, turning her eyes once more upon the pair. Toboe had lifted Tsume's hand on his uninjured side, examining the love- and lifelines closely for signs of paw pads.


	32. Let Me Sleep on It

A/N: Bones owns, Words without betaed. I have to admit that the grand finale was one of the first bits I wrote for Paradise Blues, and I don't think I'm giving away too much to say that the title for that chapter is based on a B-52's song... But fasten your Seat Belts, because it's gonna get wild.

* * *

I woke up in the dark, with a crick in my neck from the jacket against the armrest that had been substituting for a pillow. A streetlamp glared through the windows, but its bulb was old, weak, and flickered as irregularly as the neon signs of the bar. None of these lights had the least effect upon the snoring man in the passenger seat before me. Pops had tugged his hat low over his eyes and added his sweater against the creeping chill. He had taken off his trenchcoat; the long brown garment was wrapped about my shoulders as if he had tucked me into bed. I sat up and attempted to stretch my legs without losing the warmth of the extra layer. I might be fairly short, compared to everyone I knew but Toboe, but no sedan backseat I have ever seen was designed to comfortably accommodate a sleeping adult.

So… other than the dry mouth, rumbling stomach, cramped muscles, and budding pain in my temples, what had woken me up? Hangovers were not enjoyable. It was best to sleep through them, if I could. Although I didn't feel up to eating, or even drinking anything stronger than water, my stomach was not quite so turbid that I was in danger of throwing up. I pressed four fingers into my face, as deeply into my sinus cavities as I could. The pressure seemed to help control the throbbing.

With that minor accomplishment under my belt, I attempted to focus outside the car window. The flickering lights made the shadows appear to move, but Hige's car was not the only one in the lot. From these other vehicles, there came flashes of motion that were not entirely illusions caused by poor illumination. A pair of bulky figures occupied the front seats of a passenger van parked a few spaces to our left, and another being sat atop it, apparently careless about the risk of falling off, should the driver decide he was ready to go.

I couldn't make out the features of any of them. Between the erratic streetlamp and the pounding pressure of my head, I could even guarantee that they were human shaped. Through the hazy double-vision of a budding late-night hangover, there seemed to be something canine about their profiles, something wolfish superimposed upon their forms. The man atop the van jumped down, as easily as if the drop were only six inches and not six feet. Hands in his pockets, he sauntered over to us and knocked on the rear window.

"You sleep on it yet, girlie?" It was the man with the black eye from the bar. The dim, flickering light did little to improve his features.

I fumbled for my automatic. I had no real intention of trying to shoot him; even at this point-blank range, I was likely to miss while still hovering somewhere between heavily drunk and badly hungover. Besides, the noise would wake Pops. But if the gun would scare him off, all the better. "Get away from the car," I ordered him.

He lifted his hands from the glass, keeping his open palms raised in surrender. "Hey, I was just asking," he said in wounded tone. "The sooner Moss gets the info from you, the sooner he can get all of the rest of us into the loop."

"Gauss! Get over here!" The van's driver leaned out the window. I swore I heard him growl, though that could have been Pop's snoring.

"Think it over, girlie." Gauss gave me a jaunty wave before heading back to the van. I watched as it took off into the night, unable to fall back asleep in the flickering lights, even with the comforting scent of my father's trenchcoat enveloping me. I pulled it over my head and attempted to hide from the world and my hangover, which seemed to have combined forces to torment me. It had worked against closet monsters and nightmares when I was little, but not so much on headaches, and I feared that it would prove no more effective against wolves.

How did Pops function like this all the time?


	33. Don't Look Back in Anger

A/N: Much as I'd like a bit of Zali, not mine. Words without betaed. Tsume fans, this one's for you. Maxi probably knows why this chapter was _thiiiis _close to being named after "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything," but if you know the lyrics to the Oasis tune, you know why "Don't Look Back in Anger" won out.

Speaking of song lyrics, I'm planning on doing a full-scale list of artists and titles at the end, but since Snodin is awesome and already pointed out several of them (and I've already got nearly twice as many as in "Tougher Than Leather,") a few of the inspirations for the chapters for my fellow audiophiles: I love Bon Jovi, but the "Devil in Your Eyes" title came from Elvis's "Devil in Disguise." Don Henley's "End of the Innocence" is the source of "Poisoned by These Fairy Tales," and, as any bat or angel from hell could tell you, the title for the Meatloaf song is "Paradise By the Dashboard Light." It was like this one or a certain upcoming song by Johnny Cash: it had to be written in as soon as I heard it with Wolf's Rain on the brain.

* * *

"Hey." Zali stiffened and wheeled, looking surprised to feel the hand brush his shoulder even after the warnings the approaching wolf had given him.

The elder gray frowned, giving the shirtless, bandaged youngster wandering out into the back hallway of Cole's clinic a disapproving stare. "You should still be resting, runt." Tsume shrugged uncaringly, his right shoulder not quite rising as high or as fast as his unwounded left. "Cole'll have your hide if she finds you overstressing yourself."

"It's not like this is the first time I've gotten shot. I used to just limp this sort of thing off. Must be getting old," the silver gray concluded, hiking the blanket higher around his shoulders.

"You're getting stupid, you are," Zali informed him. "Though you had a pretty good head start down that road to begin with. Even your bullet-ridden stringy legs are less fragile than a clavicle under point-blank impact. You're already dead to the pack, Tsume. You're not supposed to die in front of me twice. It's bad manners." The taller wolf elbowed Tsume in the ribs and changed the subject. Zali had almost implied that he still cared about his fallen pack brother. "And I'm beginning to think you and that old man had a pretty good idea with those bracelets on your runt, runt. We oughta put a damn bell around your neck, the way you keep trying to sneak up on us."

"What, your nose has gone bad?" Tsume asked. It wasn't ever going to be quite the same between them, but this teasing reminded the young man of his childhood, back before he'd lost his place in the pack. "Besides, that's entirely Toboe's thing; you couldn't make him take those off if you tried and it's got nothing to do with me or his Pops."

Zali nodded. He was storing away the information for later, Tsume was sure. The younger gray just wasn't sure whether or not he was happy about that fact. "Cole finally got you clean, runt. I'm surprised you're still brown. You smell of enough antiseptic that I doubt your own mother'd be able to scent you."

"Well, give me my jacket and I'll go find something to roll in," Tsume said equally, holding out a hand.

"Not gonna happen." Zali shook his head, knocking the hand away. He didn't mention the current condition of Tsume's missing clothes, and Tsume didn't ask. "If you're cold, you could probably borrow your boyfriend's coat. He's out front, tinkering around with your bike. Cole and I had finally convinced him that you wouldn't be up and around anytime soon, even if he did keep trying to breathe for you." The older wolf rolled his eyes.

Tsume grunted acknowledgement, turning towards the door to the waiting room in order to hide his expression. "What about the others? You run them off yet?"

"Temporarily. The fat one wanted something to eat and the quiet one didn't feel comfortable about imposing on our hospitality. Whaddya know: manners didn't quite die off after my generation." Zali gave him a sardonic smile, shooing the younger wolf back towards his makeshift den.

Tsume resisted, turning serious golden eyes directly upon his elder. "You're not planning on having us work off the debt, are you? I can pay, Zali. I may not have money on me now, but you know I always get it to you."

"If they wanna work it off, I'll let them work it off." Zali shrugged and turned away. "There's a job tomorrow morning at Platform Fifty-One, and none of us are getting any younger."

"They wouldn't know what they're doing. Toboe and Hige don't even know how to drop their illusions at will," the white-blond argued.

"They'll learn. Who knows, runt, maybe even you'll learn what it means to pull with your family someday." Zali gave him one last look over his shoulder, and there was something worse than anger in the taller wolf's eyes as he considered the younger gray, worse than hatred… it was disappointment reflecting out of those tired yellow eyes. "You're damned good at pulling against us."

Tsume's face hardened just as quickly as Zali's had. He had thought he'd become immune to that look after so many years up north, living on his own terms, but this injury was making him weak. Tsume pulled the blanket closer about himself, determined to make it look more like a noble's robe and less like a frightened child's source of comfort. "That depends on which way you're pulling."


	34. Have You Got It Together?

A/N: I don't own Wolf's Rain anymore than I do the Cadillac of the Sky. Thanks to Words Without for betaing! This is a landmark for me: thirty-four chapters with more lined up on the way! We've now surpassed my previous longest work in progress in everything but wordcount and reviews, but give it time... (And you know, reviews don't hurt, either...)

Also, while Zali vs. Darcia could prove an interesting matchup, Gauss's black eye is more due to Big Z's fist than any relation to the big bad of Wolf's Rain. But I spoil my own fic here... Gauss, like Wormwood and Ethan, is based on one of Moss's unnamed cronies in the show - in Gauss's case, the dark-haired wolf in the green hoodie. (Original characters, precious? Why would we break down and pull out those? Like Vic Mignoga, we celebrate "Soldier A" here.) ;)

* * *

I was not going back to that bar, so Pops walked across the street to another run-down-looking restaurant and reemerged with two rather weak black coffees and directions to the train station. They had quit serving breakfast by the time we had woken up properly.

"I'm not saying we take the job, Blue. Just that we look the place over," he explained between sips. I suspected that my father had absolutely no taste buds, as well as a muted sense of smell. That, or maybe his hangover simply wasn't as bad.

I nursed my cup and followed my father's directions, driving well below the speed limit. I was in no hurry to get there. Part of me wanted to go home. Part of me wanted to go back to the vet's. None of me wanted to see Gauss or Moss or any of his cronies again. Wormwood, the blond with the cruel, sleepy golden eyes, had been in the van that night. I didn't know how I knew, but I was convinced of it, just as surely as I was convinced that no matter how much the big wolf man with the graying hair who held himself at least as arrogantly as Zali and Tsume did had promised not to kill Zali, the conspirers weren't planning on merely shaming him verbally. I didn't think they'd just reward me and Pops and then send us on our way, either, if we should choose to work with them.

The train station was surprisingly busy, compared to the rest of the city. It wasn't in much better shape, but people came and went, lugging packages and calling to each other over the rumble of the tracks. Platform Fifty-One was far away from the main entrance that we had come through, well equipped for loading vans but not so much for passengers. There was a railed balcony a few feet back from the track, one story above it. A wide ramp doubled back on itself in front of it, and a small door as gray as the wall it was set into led away from the tracks, probably into some sort of utility closet or possibly an office, although one would think that an office would have a window in the door. There were no benches.

A pair of men walked out from the door. The skinnier of the pair had the audacity to flash me a thumbs-up. Moss simply touched the brim of his cap again, leaving his right hand in his vest pocket. "Thought you might show up," the dark-violet-haired man said.

"We're just looking around." My father crossed his arms, the right hand disappearing inside his trenchcoat, towards his hunting rifle. "Taking in the sights before we head back north."

"We won't keep you long, then," Moss assured him, offering me what probably was supposed to be a friendly nod. "But you'd get a better view from up here."

"That depends on what we're wanting to see." The coffee was beginning to help somewhat with my headache. It still tasted like watery mud, with the additional bonus of being completely tepid now, but I could feel my individual sinus points throb instead of one massive collective pounding. I focused on the men on the balcony, letting my free hand drop to my hip, just above the gun holster. They still seemed blurred. Large, shaggy creatures seemed to lurk just behind them if I stared until my eyes watered. When I blinked, there was nothing up there but a pair of men once more.

"You just tell us what you're lookin' for, girlie. Wormwood and Ethan make perfect tour guides." Moss leaned against the railing, nodding at the pair that had crept up silently on our flanks. What the hell had they crawled out of?

I murmured as much to Pops. He glanced briefly towards them, but turned quickly back to the pair on the balcony. He couldn't afford to show any hint of intimidation right now.

"I ain't so bad either, am I, guys?" their thinner companion added.

Moss shook his head in gentle rebuke. "Nah, you'd go too fast, Gauss. The poor old man wouldn't be able to keep up." He smiled at Pops. Those teeth were definitely pointed. I raised my lip half-consciously, knowing my teeth would hardly scare these monsters, but I refused to be intimidated.

"I might surprise you," my father said evenly, his eyes drifting to the men on either side of us as he gripped his gun beneath his coat.

"I'm waiting," the graying violet-brunet prompted. Gauss took a seat on the guardrail, swinging his legs carelessly over the two-story drop. Their companions stepped a little closer, circling us like a pair of hunting wolves. Naturally. That was what they were.

I turned to face one, and whipped my head around to keep the other in sight when Pops didn't immediately move to cover my back. That was a mistake, as far as my head was concerned, but we could do this. I could give my father time to talk the two on the balcony into a better position for us. We wouldn't let these circling wolves scare us.

"Say we get this Zali out of your way. It's taking time away from our own hunt, so I think we'd need a bit more compensation than you assisting with our target. We can take him down ourselves."

Moss raised an eyebrow, sticking his lantern jaw forward in challenge or curiosity. "What are you looking for, old man?"

"I wouldn't mind some money," Pops said with a transitory smirk. "But what I really want is insurance, for us and our boys. Blue and I get outta here with our target, no questions, no threats, no games. Same goes for my sons." Pops shrugged.

"It's reasonable enough." I noticed he hadn't extended a similar offer for their safety, or specified just how many of us there would be. I hoped my father knew what he was doing, but now wasn't the time to drag details out of him.

"Come on, now, you think we would stoop to threatening puppies? You _wound_ us, sir." Moss's companions didn't look too injured to me. Even Gauss's black eye was fading, unless it was simply a combination of lessening headache and better lighting that made it look less bruised.

"Puppies," my father repeated in stony, cynical disbelief, "are not what I worry about."

The man leaning against the railing grinned; his teeth plainly sharp even at this distance. A subtle movement of his hand or head stopped the two circling us, closing in on us, in their tracks. "Just a bit of a local expression. I expect we'll see you sharp and early tomorrow, then, won't we?"

"No," Pops said, withdrawing his empty hand once Wormwood and Ethan backed off. "You won't."

Gauss laughed and jumped from the railing, landing neatly between the other two. "As long as Zali doesn't see you coming, either." He offered Pops a hand.

"We don't shake," I told him, my hand still above my gun. "Not with your kind." Maybe it was just that I'd had the chance to rest it, but my shoulder, too, was healing quickly. It hardly pained me today, at least in comparison to my head.

Gauss looked nonplussed, but the one referred to as Ethan shrugged and pushed him aside. "As long as you finish the job, girlie."


	35. Do That Again!

A/N: What do you want for nothing? Wolf's Rain? Thanks to Words without for betaing!

Loyal reviewers, how we salute thee! As to your question, Ninjawitch: When Mignoga is not leading his Rangers against the Army that would really _love_ Blue or voicing Edward Elric, he does some really catchy little filk-type songs, one of which is a dedication to the type of character that inspired Gauss and company. As a display of MSA-RR solidarity, there's a youtube vid featuring the dogs here: www.youtube. com/watch?vXNyW21dU8zE&featurerelated (Warg, you ask? She's an Ice Bears of Briggs fan.)

* * *

"So, what's good, here?" Hige flipped eagerly through the cafe's menu. His mouth watered as another waitress passed by their table with a triple order of burgers. "I think I could eat a whole cow by myself."

Kiba smirked behind the shelter of his menu. None of the food looked particularly appealing to the wolf, but there was something comforting about seeing Hige back in his own territory. Even more than Tsume and his gang or Toboe and his big brown eyes, Hige had always been the best at getting exactly what he wanted out of humans and their cities. The brown-haired young man possessed a certain uncouth charm, but as wolf or man, Hige was just enough of a bastard to somehow gain possession of more than simple animal magnetism alone could account for. Kiba had always admired him for it, even if the white wolf himself would rather have as little to do with humans as he could.

"Our special today is the fish sandwich," their own perky little waitress recommended. "But if you're in the mood for beef, I suppose I could see if we could get you a dinner portion of steak…"

Hige smiled winningly. "Aw, you'd do that for us, beautiful?" Kiba kicked him under the table. Hige's eyes had lingered a bit longer than necessary on her nametag. "Thanks, Violet."

"Well, it'll be at dinner prices, but it's no trouble on my account." She spoke quickly, her eyes on her notepad.

"Whaddya say, Kiba? Let's live large, go with two of 'em, and put them on the expense report." Hige winked broadly. "Just cut it off the cow and serve it to me."

"Rare for me." Kiba nodded as the little waitress hurried off. "Should we worry about what Blue'll do to you?"

Hige shrugged. "I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm engaged, not dead. I can't help it if girls like me."

The white wolf shook his head and chuckled. "You know, Hige, life's a whole lot more boring without you around. Simpler, but boring."

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Hige informed him, leaning back in the booth.

Kiba held out his hands as if to ward him off. "After the last time, I'm not sure I want to know."

"Last time?" Hige made a dismissive sound. "Jumping a wolf is nothing. He'd hurt Blue, and I'd have given him worse if I didn't have to be babysitting the runt."

The white wolf nodded in agreement, a certain predatory light lingering even in the blue-green eyes of his human projection. "That is the least of what I've seen you do."

Hige blinked, taking a moment to reconsider the image of the young man in rumpled clothing seated across from him. "You know, I hate to pry, and it's not that I don't do awesome things at the drop of a hat naturally, but I don't think you're talking about anything recent. You didn't go to Harmony University, did you? I can't say I remember you, and I rarely forget a face…" Kiba just shook his head. "You from the old neighborhood, then?" Hige asked.

Kiba leaned forward, after looking around the booth to insure that none of the other diner patrons were paying attention to their conversation. Maybe… Just maybe, Hige would remember something, anything from before… It would be nice to have someone else who remembered pieces of that life, someone who would understand why the white wolf needed to find Cheza so badly. The brown-eyed wolf had adapted to lost memories before... "We met long before that, Hige."

The brown-haired intern simply shrugged and gave up. "Okay, you got me. Do any of you wolves talk sense, or is that Zen riddle thing part of finding paradise?"

"Perhaps it is," Kiba couldn't quite contain a smile, although his thoughts had a bittersweet bite to them. "Maybe we'd have gotten there last time if you had been a little truer to your nature."

"Hey, I'm one hundred percent all natural chick magnet, man, and you don't get much closer to maintaining the true nature of a guy…" Hige trailed off as further import of Kiba's words sunk in. "Tsume was just bullshitting that other wolf, right? You guys know that Blue and Toboe and I are normal. I mean, even if this is some weird past life mumbo-jumbo, I mean, I guess that's cool, but that's not us anymore. I've got a degree in toxicology, for god's sake, because my mother wanted to have a doctor in the family. That doesn't sound much like a wolf to me…"

Kiba continued to stare and let him talk, mentally tallying up a list of repeated phrases. Hige cut himself off at the approach of their waitress. "Two rare dinner portions," Violet said, setting down a pair of plates that looked nearly too large for her to have carried by herself. "I talked with the manager, and I think we might be able to get you folks a discount…"

"That'd be great. Thanks, Violet, you're a real sweetheart." Hige managed a grateful smile, but his patter was not quite as smooth as it had been upon the initial encounter. Beneath the smell of warm, bloody meat – more enticing than Kiba had expected, even if it had been reheated a time or two and cooked past his liking – the wolf caught the salty tang of sweat and unease from the brown-haired man.

Kiba dug in. This smelled so much better than hot dogs.


	36. I Can Feel the Devil Walking Next to Me

A/N: There were 132 Wolf's Rain stories with the word "Paradise" in the title, last time I checked. You think anyone has sympathy for this devil who doesn't own it, either? Thanks to Words without for the beta!

* * *

We retreated from the platform as quickly as possible. The crowds at the station were both a help and a hindrance: Pops and I had lived in Freeze City long enough to become fairly adept at losing ourselves in a mass of humanity without getting trampled for our trouble, but god help me if I remembered the way out. It's harder to keep track of platform numbers when one is ducking and dodging the foot traffic.

Pops didn't seem to be having a whole lot more luck than I was. He shouldered through the crowd with more ease than I could, but somehow we'd missed a turn and my father simply soldiered straight on, with no immediate destination.

At least we'd gotten away from those men – those… wolves. Even if their senses of smell were superior to my own, they'd have trouble tracking us down with so many others crossing our path. Maybe it was a good thing we weren't headed straight back to the car. We'd have time to circle back, wait until they got tired of guarding it, and make a clean escape. We'd be out of this city by tomorrow, call Detective Lebowski and tell him… something, and then we'd get Toboe and Hige home safe, with Kiba in police custody by Monday morning.

Yeah. Right.

There were two of them waiting by the exit by the time we got turned around properly: the sleepy-eyed blond with the pleasant conversational strategies and our friend with the black eye. Gauss spotted us first. He waved jauntily at us, as if we hadn't spotted them at the edge of the crowd. Pops pulled his hat lower and we attempted to walk around them, but Wormwood cheerfully shoved his way between walkers and grasped me by the shoulder. I definitely felt teeth.

"You don't skip town, girlie. Not on us," he whispered. A quick glance to the side revealed that Pops had been similarly restrained by Gauss. My captor nodded towards the pistol on my hip. "You just keep your bullets for the job tomorrow. We wouldn't want to scare the locals, now, would we?"

"Moss wouldn't like that," Gauss agreed. "He doesn't think much of the violence Zali uses to keep the pack in line." He leaned across my father's back to offer me a grin from his maw.

"Yet he's willing to deal us," Pops said through gritted teeth, using his superior upper body mass to at least put some distance between Gauss and me. "What would he think of you roughing up the hired help?"

"Moss keeps his hands clean," Wormwood laughed. "That's all he worries with." They had hustled us away from the train commuters and workers now, into a blind alley as foreboding and dismal as any of the more run-down sections of Freeze City could offer.

Great.

"I think these two could use a lesson in pack loyalty." My captor shoved me forward, sending me stumbling into a wall. Pops grunted in pain as I regained my footing and turned to face the wolves.

There was no doubt about what they were now. Where a pair of men had once stood were two giant, snarling canines, their fur standing on end and their legs tensing to jump. The smaller of the pair must have weighed at least as much as I did, and as quick as Pops could be on the draw, he still couldn't get his rifle out before those fangs sunk into his arm.

The hell with it. The larger of the pair – I assumed from its lighter coat coloring and relative position that it was Wormwood, but frankly I didn't give much of a damn at the time – moved to clamp in on Pops as well, and I struck out with my switchblade falling into my hand. After all, I'd matched a wolf for speed before.

Barely. While I was already armed. While he was merely toying with me.

Nevertheless, the knife struck, if a little less true than I'd hoped. I slashed at him again and again, hoping to cause enough damage that he'd release Pops. The wolf whimpered, but he didn't release.

My father roared in rage and pain. Still unable to reach a firearm, Pops used this fury to fight back with the only method left to him: lifting the giant dogs clinging to his arm, Pops flung himself into the wall, using the wolves to absorb the brunt of the impact. Between the sudden jolt and multiple, albeit shallow stab wounds, the larger wolf released his bite, tumbling to the dirt beneath our feet and scrambling away, howling in agony.

Pop's arm wasn't hanging right beneath the blood-soaked sleeve. Those jaws had crushed it, and there was still one stubborn bastard son of a bitch wolf hanging from him.

Gauss glared at me through his blackened yellow eye, daring me to do something. My father dropped to his knees, panting heavily. I took aim. It was easy enough, since the wolf never released his bite. That eye would never heal.

I helped Pops tug the corpse loose and wrapped an arm about him, trying not to think of how much we might have jolted his arm in the process. Pops groaned, and I glanced down. Part of me expected it to turn into human body, any second. I didn't know which would be worse.

We made it back to the car before I had to throw up. I'd dealt with corpses before, I'd been injured before, I'd seen my father injured, but that didn't make it easier. I think Pops understood; he never told me otherwise.

That was wolves for you.

And I still didn't know what the hell we were going to do about Tsume.


	37. Dog Eat Dog Eat Dog

A/N: Not mine. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

* * *

Toboe had just about finished retightening the chain when he heard the footsteps behind him. The nice thing about working on a bike was that unlike a car, you weren't trapped under the chassis or the hood while you did your repairs and could generally get an eye for approaching parties without having to abandon the vehicle completely. If you were good. Toboe wasn't quite that good.

"Lot of pups around here all of a sudden," the older of the men observed, sniffing the air deeply.

His companion groaned. "Shut it, Ethan, just get me inside." The blond changed his grip on his bleeding leg and flinched, whimpering in pain. There were cuts along his arms, too.

Toboe dropped his wrench, hurrying over in an attempt to help. "You okay, mister? What happened?"

"Course I'm not okay, that little bitch nearly took a chunk outta my face," the blond snapped.

Ethan waved the hovering boy away. "Just hold the door, kid." Toboe rushed to comply, and the older man sniffed at him once more as they passed into Cole's clinic. "You recognize that scent, Wormwood?" he asked his wounded companion in an undertone Toboe hadn't been meant to hear, but that came in loud and clear anyway.

Wormwood took an appeasing sniff of the air and grimaced. "It all smells like blood and alcohol to me. Damn girl. Damn old bastard."

Ethan scratched at his narrow, pointed chin and nodded. "Smells of them, too, but there's something else tap-dancing across the old memory box. Leather." He pointed to the bin of dirty laundry in the corner, the one Cole had thrown Tsume's coat into until she found the time to deal with it.

"That's mine," Toboe stammered. "I just don't know of a good cleaner's in town." He'd never been particularly good at stretching the truth, let alone an outright lie, but this seemed as good a time as any to test his limits. Tsume had been reluctant enough about dealing with Cole and Zali…how would he deal with these two?

"Didn't occur to you to ask right next door?" The eldest male smirked. Not sure of how to respond, Toboe just shrugged, staring at the floor.

"Just shut it, Ethan," the blond grumbled. "Cole!"

The woman in question walked slowly from the back, careful to close the door behind her. "Who'd you get into a fight with this time, Wormwood?"

"Not important," the injured blond made to push the topic away, but from his earlier curses, Toboe had a niggling suspicion. "Gauss was still back there. I think he's dead." The boy's eyes flew open and a gasp escaped his mouth at this news.

"Oh, dear," Cole said faintly, catching herself against the counter. "Wormwood… Ethan… What happened?"

"Business disagreement," Ethan said with a shrug. The bald older man appeared unmoved by the potential death of his pack mate, although he contentiously assisted Wormwood to a seat. "Don't worry about tomorrow; we're still on there, but these fools managed to lose us a better position through their damn impatience." Ethan's glare could have added more cuts to Wormwood's flayed skin, as far as Toboe was concerned, but the blond barely looked at his companion as Cole knelt before them to examine the wounds.

"You'd be impatient too if you'd lived with Zali this long," Wormwood muttered back, ignoring Cole's frown as well.

"Er, can I do anything to help, Dr. Cole?" Toboe asked, trying to break the feelings of useless awkwardness and panicked discomfort that warred with his curiosity. The two people that Wormwood had fought with surely hadn't been _his_ Pops and Blue… They were long gone. They'd been scared of the wolves.

"Yeah," Ethan dropped his illusion, and while the wolf beneath had surely seen better days, he certainly wasn't frail and toothless. "You can get out of here, puppy."

"Leave the boy alone," Cole admonished him. "He's come here looking for a safe haven. The least we could do is set an example for certain 'impatient fools.'" The violet-haired woman turned to Toboe. "If you can bring me bandages, that would be wonderful," she told him. "Then you might want to figure out what the mate is up to and keep him away, if you know what I mean. He always gets too worked up at the smell of pack blood, not that he'll ever admit it."

"Right." Toboe nodded and fled for the back. He didn't know where Cole kept her supplies, but Zali and Tsume probably would. It was kind of nice, Toboe thought as he ran, that of all the ways Cole could possibly hide Tsume's presence in plain sight, she had referred to the white-blond as Toboe's mate. Or implied it, anyway…

From what he had seen of them, Toboe couldn't believe that wolves were quite as bad as his father had always said they were. They were just misunderstood, really… Cole seemed very nice, and deep down, Zali did seem to be trying to look out for his family. He and Tsume just weren't great at showing it, which was why they needed Cole and Toboe, the redhead decided as he dug through the drawers for bandages.

Tsume was asleep, and the larger gray had curled up not far away, pointedly not making contact but not exactly out of range for Tsume, should he wake up suddenly and decide he needed a familiar face. It wasn't worth disturbing them for something Toboe could find himself with just a little searching.

Hopefully, Wormwood would be the only one who needed the bandages.


	38. She Must Be Tired of Something

A/N: Bones owns, Warg plays, Words without supervises. As a tribute to my original fandom, a present for you all on my b-day: a new update!

* * *

The hospital coffee wasn't much better than the restaurant's had been, but even a muddy-flavored decaf helped to soothe my nerves. At least I could drink it. The nurses clucked at me as if it were a Styrofoam cupful of my father's cheapest vodka, but I wasn't too worried about thinning my blood, superficial lacerations and bite wounds or no superficial lacerations and bite wounds. I'd make it. It wasn't exactly the hair of the dog that had bit me, after all.

Irish coffee appealed to about a quarter of me at that moment, I'm not ashamed to admit. The other three fourths were divided into shame that Pops wouldn't be able to join me and a serious urge to throw up as soon as look at a strong drink. I couldn't say which part was more pressing.

"It's a good thing you got him here when you did, Ms. Yaiden," one of the nurses said, clapping my unbandaged shoulder and offering me more mud. "He could've bled out from that arm."

"Those dogs are a menace, I swear," another added authoritatively. "They go absolutely wild when they get loose. Oh, I do wish the train station would stop hiring them. It just encourages irresponsible breeding."

Having fulfilled her duties to me, the nurse returning to the desk had no reservations about chiming in with her opinion on the state of canines today. "That Zali Sashkovitch man must have twenty of the beasties, and do you think he even owns that many leashes? Ha!"

"Twenty?" I asked faintly. Moss and Wormwood and Ethan and Cole and Gauss… Well, not him any longer. How many other wolves had been in that bar or at the station, fully aware of Moss's plans?

Both nurses nodded confirmation. "I don't care if his wife runs a vet clinic. No one man needs to own a full team of sled dogs."

"I don't think he's gotten any of them fixed. It just means that they'll be more aggressive and eager to leap the fences, if you know what I'm saying."

The nurse on receptionist duty "mm-hmm"ed in agreement. "I don't let my kids out if I see working dogs going by our place."

"They'll have the traps and service trucks out now, of course, so Zali and his wild bunch will watch their steps more carefully. Don't you worry, miss, they'll put down the beast that did that to your father." Her coworker noticed my unease and tried to offer me a reassuring smile. Her teeth were flat, I noticed thankfully.

"You don't have to worry about that," I said.

"No, they'll send word to Lady Jaguara," the nurse continued, obviously not catching my shiver of regret. "She knows how to regulate dog ownership."


	39. You Don't Think I Understand

A/N: All you need to remember is I don't own them. Words without betaed. Thank you all for the B-day wishes! Although "Paradise Blues" isn't a song I've heard, it is at least partially in reference to a couple Yoko Kanno pieces, among other songs...

* * *

Cole found the two grays not far from where Toboe had left them, curled into separate balls of fur a nose's reach away from each other in the back examination room. She dropped her illusion, fully aware that sometimes life was better without having to bother with balancing with that much weight on two legs, and thankful once again that she had a way to work around the handicap.

"You ready to go to bed, Zali?" she asked, awakening her husband as quietly as possible with a nose against his side. "We need you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow, and I'd hate for Tsume to have an actual reason to mock you after you ran his mate off."

Zali yawned and shook the sleep from his head, letting his ears flap against his skull with the motion. "Somebody's gotta make sure the runt doesn't get into a fight he's not ready for, and having the boy around would only encourage him. If anybody has to set asses back in line, it's gonna be me doing it. Who caused all the ruckus, anyway? The humans trying to round us up, again?"

"Not yet," Cole told him. "Wormwood and Gauss got into a fight; Wormwood wouldn't tell me with whom. He won't be able to pull so hard tomorrow, and Gauss probably won't be pulling at all. They think he's dead, Zali." She laid her head nervously against his shoulder, letting her ears and tail droop with worry. Cole had hoped that her pack members would realize that a heavily pregnant she-wolf would have fewer reserves to be tending to wounds, and while most of them tried, there always seemed to be so many hurts…

Zali cursed under his breath, nuzzling her in return. "I can't swear he didn't have it coming, but that's definitely not what I wanted to hear." His eyes strayed unconsciously to the third wolf in the room. "Damn stubborn, selfish idiots…"

"There's got to be a better way." His mate followed his gaze, shifting her muzzle over his back. "Zali? Did you ever stop to think that maybe Tsume was right? That we gave up on finding paradise too soon? You used to be as eager to get there as he was. We all were, I suppose. Do you think that we just… settled… for less than we deserve? Less than our pups deserve?"

The large gray simply shrugged her off with a blasé flick of his ear. "Even if I did think that, there's not much I can do but try to keep us safe right here right now. We're not kids, anymore, Cole; we can't go running off any time we like."

"No," she agreed with a sigh. "I can't run right now. But when I can, promise me that you'll be running with me."

Zali offered her a kiss along the jaw, leading her out of the room. "Always," he said, shutting the door carefully behind them. "With a pup or two dangling from my mouth, if I need to."

The unexpected visitor in the hallway had seen them as wolves before, but the boy still looked scared of them. Perhaps it was merely because he had gotten caught listening in on the private conversation of two creatures with giant teeth, and in Cole's case, at least, severely fluctuating hormones.

"Er," Toboe offered, backing quickly away. Zali changed into his illusion, gently grabbing the boy by the arm. "I know I'm just a small human," the boy stammered, his body language emphasizing the "small," "but if there's some way I can help you guys tomorrow, I'd be glad to do my part. Humans and wolves working together to make something good: can't get much closer to paradise on earth than that, right?"

"We'll see, kid," Zali said, releasing the boy and softly pushing him in the direction of Tsume's room. "I suppose it could be worse."


	40. Daughters Will Live Like You Do

A/N: I try to be good to them, but they're not mine. Thanks to Words without for betaing! Dang, three reviews in one chapter? I'm getting spoiled, here, y'all, seriously. Thank you! Yeah, we don't get all that much on Cole herself, but using Moss and the boys as references, I can almost take a guess at her coloring.

Also, if you're interested in looking a little ahead, I've started a collection of the songs that inspire the chapter titles and occasionally the mood on YouTube that goes through Chapter 47. It's labelled "Paradise Blues' Ultimate Playlist" under the username B2WM.

* * *

Pops blinked blearily at me as I entered his room. Both his arms had been tightly bandaged past the elbows and the right was bound further in a cast, and there was little to no color in his face beneath the weathered tan. Used to seeing him flushed drunk as often as not, this struck me as a very, very bad sign. "Blue? How bad's the damage?"

"You look awful," I blurted before I could stop myself. I took his hand in mine in apology, trying not to squeeze it too tight. There was still warmth in his grip. A little. His fingers were still as large and powerful as ever in my hand, but they weren't squeezing mine back. It was like when he was plastered, I told myself. Just let him sleep it off and he'd be all right again. He probably wouldn't even remember being in such pain.

My father tried to smile at that. "Like a wolf?" I shook my head. "Then I'll live. Did we get the bastards, at least?"

"One of them," I told him.

"Good." Pops nodded in thought, letting his eyelids droop lower. "Take their job tomorrow, Blue."

I jerked away. Obviously the blood loss had affected his brain. "What?"

"Go to the train station. Give 'em a surprise. Teach them that it's not worth tangling with a Yaiden." Awkwardly, Pops lifted his arm towards my shoulder. "See if you can get Toboe to come home. I want you two safe."

"Me, too, Pops," I said, hugging him as best I could. He let out a pained grunt at the contact. "But I don't know that I can take all those wolves by myself, and I don't want to leave you here alone."

"I'm not going anywhere, Blue. You're my big girl. You know the business. You can take them down." My father looked me straight in the eye, and some of his spirit seemed to come back to him.

I couldn't let him down. Not when he looked at me like that. "Will do, sir."


	41. Now It's Time to Serve

A/N: I may have my spine and my citrus-flavored soft drink of choice, but don't follow me, I don't own Wolf's Rain. Words without betaed. This is the last short chapter for at least a little while, I promise!

Also, as NaNo inspired what eventually became the "in Paradise" trilogy, "Blues" will be the main thrust of my 50000 word challenge this year. Hopefully, that will mean longer chapters, though longer chapters that won't be seen until January when I can have them betaed... Don't worry, I've still got enough material to update once a week through then, but my buffer of betaed chapters is going to catch up with me if I don't watch myself.

* * *

"My lady?"

The young woman approached the noble's throne with perhaps a touch more than her usual deference. She was careful to never reveal emotion around her employer, but the extra care with which she conducted herself suggested that the girl was hiding something beneath.

"I looked into the call from the Gateway Isle. There are two of the Collared there at the moment, and one of them seems to be pushing the limits of the device."

"Which one?" the noblewoman asked. As strong as her alchemical skills were, the restraints were not yet perfected. She had had so few upon which to experiment, after all… It was always a pity when she had to put one down.

"X-23, my lady," her servant answered, keeping her eyes on the floor. "V-45 has shown no signs of struggle."

That made no sense. "X-23 is a failed experiment. It died shortly after the Collar was implanted."

The girl nodded slowly, as if trying to figure out how to phrase her comment. "That is odd, my lady. X-23 has been on the tracking device. Until last month, it was usually within ten miles of the Moonflower Project."

"And V-45?" the lady asked.

"It has never been within the project's facilities, but it, too, had been staying within the Freeze City dome." The girl did not meet her employer's face.

"Get me Degre-Lebowski's records. She doesn't need to know that I'm on to her scheme, yet, but I will be informed as to what she thinks she's doing, bringing in the Collared before the project has entered its final stages." The noblewoman reached for her sword belt.

"I shall make the appropriate calls, my lady." Neige bowed and left the room.


	42. Can't Think at All

A/N: \/\/01f'5 R411\1? Not mine. I really do apologize for the leet speak, but much like Vetinari's sign in the scorpion pit, it becomes clear once you've learned the words. I know, a few of you are wondering what Our Lady of the Wicked Sweet Minne Mouse 'Do is doing hanging with Jaguara instead of working directly for Darcia. That, however, would be a spoiler. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

* * *

I didn't know who to expect when they paged me for an outside call. I still hadn't checked in with Hige. It wasn't like he expected us to reach Freeze City for another couple weeks, anyway, and between the wolves and the injuries, I hadn't gotten around to informing him of our delayed departure.

"Sheila?" Only one person continued to call me by my given name long after we'd gotten to know each other.

"Hey, Niege. I'm surprised you managed to find us here. Did you have to resort to the Ouija board, or do noble contacts really get you everywhere?"

"I had a feeling," Neige admitted. She dropped her voice, as if she wasn't hard enough to hear over the phone with the nurses' station not ten feet away. "Technically, I couldn't use any alchemical sources this time, though. My lady knows when I do a working, and I am not to be using her teachings for private matters."

"Yeah, technically, I guess we shouldn't tie up the phone on company time, either, but has that stopped us before?" Niege was a nice girl, once you got her off her high horse and convinced her to relax a little, but there was nothing that got her quite so wound up as her job in Lady Jaguara's household. She said she enjoyed the work and the lessons, but I'd be nervous about being underfoot around a noble that didn't have such a keen interest in the unnatural, let alone Lady "I can destroy you with the palm of my hand" Jaguara. I didn't believe that Neige was truly that much more sanguine about the position, but I couldn't help but test her confidence a little every now and then. It kept _me_ from panicking about her boss.

"I didn't call entirely for personal reasons, Sheila," Neige admitted. "This may sound strange to you, but trust me; my lady has her reasons for not informing the public of what I would tell you."

"Is this going to be one of those weird and potentially dangerous alchemy-related things?" I asked.

Neige was hesitant to answer. "In some regards," she allowed at last. "It does have the potential to be very dangerous, and I thought you and Hige ought to be informed, at least, since it seems to have been following you."

"Just let me know what's going on, Neige," I told her, impatient with the politicking that came second nature to her.

"You know the legends concerning wolves, I trust?" she asked.

I resisted the urge to snort. "Yeah. Pops and I are getting to be something of experts on the topic. Wolf bites don't turn you into a wolf, do they?" My shoulder itched, and my arms were still sore. Still, I was better off than Pops.

"No, that one's not true," Neige assured me. "Though wolves do still exist, Sheila. For their good and ours, I do not reveal this information lightly, but I think there are wolves in your area."

I couldn't hold it back any longer. "I know, Neige. I know. We've already seen a bunch of them." There was something salty stinging at the tightened corners of my eyes. Tears from laughter or frustration, I couldn't say.

"How many is 'a bunch?'" She sounded surprised. How many was she expecting?

"I don't know… Seven? Eight? I can confirm four still living, at least." No sense in overestimating the enemy. There were enough out there without letting my speculation get away with me.

"Four still living? Are there undead wolves running about the island?" The apprentice alchemist was silent on the other end for a few moments. "Because, honestly, that might explain a great deal…"

My laughter was more genuine this time. "You tell me, wiz kid. I haven't seen any, though, just a dead one."

"Was there a serial number on it?" Neige asked eagerly.

"A serial number," I repeated unbelievingly. Neige offered me an affirmative. "I'm sorry; I didn't think to check for one of those while the beast was trying to rip my father's arms off."

"Sheila… Blue…" She'd used the nickname. Neige was begging seriously now. "Please check for me. It's not just noble politics; it's a matter of trying to find some method to save these creatures from their own violence. If we can determine which wolf has the malfunctioning Collar, we might be able to fix it and keep the wolf from dropping its human form. With the Collars that Lady Jaguara has been implanting, these wolves might be happy, peaceful citizens, none the wiser as to the danger that lurks beneath their own skin. Without a functioning Collar… well, if the wolf that attacked your father had a Collar, it's in sore need of repair."

"All right, where do I find this serial number collar thing?" I asked, picking up a pen and rooting around for a nearby scrap of paper. Sometimes Neige seemed to forget that we all hadn't gotten basic alchemical training.

The best I could find was already written on, but there was room in the margins. It would have to do. I tested the pen as Neige collected her thoughts.

"It should be located fairly high along the spine, just beneath the base of the skull. It's under the skin, so I wouldn't necessarily try it on a live wolf unless you've got a strong anesthetic to hand," she warned me. "There are two serial numbers that I know are in your area: X-71323 and V-71345. X-23 is behaving oddly."

I turned the paper sideways, obediently writing the numbers down, in case I ever came into contact with Gauss's corpse again through some sick turn of fate. Who knew, maybe I'd even encounter other bodies… I ran out of room along the edge and turned the paper to the other side. It was then that I recognized it.

"Hey, Neige? Can you read me those numbers again?" I flipped the paper back and forth.

"All you need to remember is X-23 and V-45. That's all we use, most of the time; the other numbers are redundant," Niege assured me.

"Just read me the last number." She did. It was the same. "Flip it over."

"What? Zero point ought ought ought ought one four?" She'd always been a quick study, although she wasn't always good at figuring out the lesson.

"Stop being so brilliant at math. Play with the calculator with the country girl, for once."

She laughed. Neige had introduced me to the tool after Pops and I had moved to Freeze City, although I'd always been more fascinated with the patterns one could make from its number displays than its proper uses. "I don't know what you're on about, Sheila."

"It's Blue, Neige. Pops named me Blue. Sheila was only the name on the adoption certificate." It was the only name given on the certificate, from what Pops had told me. No wonder.

Ignoring the ache in my arm, I reached up to scratch at the back of my neck. "Never mind," I sighed. If Neige didn't get it, that was okay. "Is that one malfunctioning?"

"Not yet," she told me. How reassuring.

"What about the others, the wild wolves? There are more than two wolves here, after all." More wolves than I'd thought.

Neige "hmm"ed thoughtfully. "Collars are usually implanted during infancy. I don't know that we can tame them."

"Please tell me you'll try." Well, on the plus side, we might have a solution to the Tsume problem.

"I will do what I can and assume that you are doing the same." She had gotten really good at the nobles' political doubletalk, but what else could any of us do?

I rubbed deeper at the tissue, trying to feel the ridge-line of vertebrae above my shoulders. What _was_ there for me to do?


	43. Turned Away From It All Like a Blind Man

A/N: Does the Flaming Bentley Rule of Tapes Left Too Long in the Car apply to this chapter? Up to you. At least we finally have Tsume showing up again. Yeah, I missed the poor sonnuva, too. As to the Sheila question... I left hints in the prologue, but I'll explain next chapter, once we see a few more guesses on X-23 and V-45.

Also, David Sedaris owns. Period. Except Wolf's Rain. They're from Bones and the folks behind Cowboy Bebop, if that answers your question. (Because let's face it: when it comes down to my favorite anime series, it's a toss-up between the top three: Ed vs. Blue. Yes, General Armstrong _wins_, but she's manga-only.) Thanks to my partner in crime, Words without!

* * *

_"I mean, like, in prison or whatnot. One of you has to be in for murder and the other for child molesting or something like that, right?"_

-As asked to David Sedaris, "All the Beauty You Will Ever Need"

* * *

Tsume awoke when the warm arm thrown across his ribs moved away from him. "Toboe?" he murmured, groggy despite his better instincts. "How long was I out?"

"I didn't mean to wake you," the redhead said apologetically. "It's pretty late now; I was just getting ready to go to bed myself."

Tsume rolled over and caught his lover by the wrist before Toboe could straighten up and back away. "So come to bed." The pale-haired man pulled him close, nuzzling into the small runt's warmth. _This is nice, _Tsume decided. It was the first time he'd gotten Toboe so close to him since the wolf had admitted what he was, and Toboe wasn't shying away.

The coppery-haired youngster wasn't exactly turning him over and shagging him rotten, either, but Tsume had lived through worse reactions. If the runt kept dancing around him like he was made of glass and then reaching out to stroke him when the wolf was half-asleep, as if Toboe needed to convince himself that Tsume was still Tsume - well, they could build up from there. For all the gray knew, his lover was just doing that because of that damn bullet wound. Toboe always had been a little gun-shy.

"Are you sure this is okay?" The smaller male rubbed his hands against Tsume's chest. "I mean, you're wounded, and, er–" The slightly-built redhead blushed and looked down at their intertwining bodies. "There may be some truth to what Hige was talking about."

The joke was obvious. "You're not interested in doggy style, then?" It earned Tsume a light slap upside the head, but it was worth it. "Wolves and humans… isn't unheard of. There's an old legend among us that humans came from wolves, and occasionally, there are even kids with a little of both in them." Tsume decided to keep quiet about at least one infertile mixed match. His runt had been through enough, and that particular bit of knowledge would probably do more harm than help right now.

"The stories about our extinction may have been exaggerated, but it's not by much. We try not to worry about what we end up with so much as _who_. It's not like we wolves can't work out what's going on when two people go off to be alone together…" Tsume walked his fingers teasingly up the back of his lover's neck. He knew the runt was ticklish there, and the gangster was hardly above taking advantage of the fact.

"So shouldn't you be doing your part to further your species?" Toboe had hidden his face against the taller man's chest, but Tsume could feel the heat rising from the redhead's cheeks. Was he jealous? Better that the white-blond hadn't brought that up, then.

"I am," Tsume said, kissing his lover lightly on the head. "When I was young, I had a stupid crush on Zali. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but it's his loss, our gain. He's happy with Cole, and my duty to the pack is down to staying out of their hair."

"I dunno…" the smaller of the pair said, lifting his face from the gray wolf's scarred chest. "Zali seems like he could be pretty cool, once you get to know him."

"Oh, don't tell me _you're _interested in him." Tsume was fairly certain that Toboe was only teasing, but the boy did have a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve, letting it bleed for whoever might catch his eye.

The runt smiled. "Just because he reminds me of you," Toboe said, kissing Tsume reassuringly. "It seems like he could use a little of our help, too."

Damn. As if Cole's blatant hints and the recriminations courtesy of Tsume's own conscience weren't bad enough… "He talked you into going to the train station tomorrow, didn't he?"

Tsume couldn't let Toboe go through that. Maybe Zali and Moss and the rest of Tsume's former pack wanted to eke out half a living on sheer muscle, but even if conditions there were better, even if they could be absolutely certain that Toboe was a wolf and in full control of his form, Tsume couldn't see the fragile-looking runt in one of those _dog _harnesses. Toboe just wasn't built for the work, for one thing. As much muscle as he himself might carry, Tsume wasn't sure that _he_ was entirely built for such labor.

Mentally, he certainly wasn't. Tsume had no quarrel with humanity in general and didn't mind walking among them in his illusion, but a wolf had to have standards. Standards like getting treated as a fully sentient being were simply out of the question for wolves working at the train station. Tsume didn't mind humans in general, but there were certain individuals that he would love to pick a bone with.

"No," Toboe told him. Before the golden-eyed man could entirely relax, however, the runt added: "I decided on my own."

Tsume clutched him close. This couldn't be happening. If he gave Toboe a good shake, the runt would admit it was just some sick joke and his lover wasn't really getting involved in that soul-crushing mess that Zali had resigned the rest of his pack to living in. "Runt, trust me, it's not worth it. I can handle my own vet bills and I don't mind covering for you."

"Somebody died out there today, Tsume," Toboe informed him, those big honey-brown eyes transfixing him. "And another member of Zali's pack – _your family_ – was wounded pretty badly. It's the least I can do."

"My family's right here, runt," Tsume argued. He stared into Toboe's eyes, trying to convince the redhead - and furthermore, himself - just how close, how limited, "right here" was.

He hadn't made direct contact with most of the others since his exile. Even before that, his relations with the other lower-ranked males weren't entirely cordial. It still didn't change the fact that they had helped make Tsume what he was, as much as the gray wolf might try to shove the thought away.

"Yeah." Toboe wore a bittersweet smile, lowering his forehead to rest against Tsume's own. "That's why I'm taking care of them."


	44. Don't Call Me Daughter, Not Fit to Be

A/N: Why Sheila? Partly because Allison didn't flip as well and partly because I was already calling her brother Bruce, just to keep it clear... (Both of Blue's namesakes are silly in origin and neither tie in very closely with this fic, but feel free to assist Private Donut and sing along if you know the words: "Immanuel Kant was a real pissant..." Speaking of Monty Python shout outs, I do have a short addition to my metafic "It's Too Perilous" coming up, if you're interested in that.) Not mine. Thanks to Words without for betaing!

* * *

I sat outside of Pop's room for a while after hanging up the phone. Neige's information didn't change what needed to be done, or how I felt about the wolves, but there wasn't much to do but wait until the morning, anyway. I might as well take a breather.

I pulled the scrap paper out of my pocket, examining the original message in the center in idle curiosity. It was just doctor's scribble, notes in a shorthand that I couldn't decode into anything meaningful. Same as the random collection of numbers down one side. To Pops, these notes would probably make even less sense. Just as well. I crumpled the paper up and tossed it at the wastebasket. Missed.

Under the admonishing gaze of a passing nurse, I picked up the balled note, and upon second thought, shoved it back into my pocket. It wasn't doing any harm there.

I wondered who this Number 23 might be. Niege had said that it was in the area, too, and considering that she'd gone through the trouble of tracking me down, it seemed that the Collared wolf had been following us for some time now, maybe even from Freeze City. Was it Kiba, perhaps? The man acted like he'd just escaped the mental institution. Even the other wolves seemed nervous around him. I knew I was.

Pops was asleep when I popped my head in, snoring as comfortably as he could in the cast. His guns had been locked away for hospital safety, but with his blessings, I could probably have them out when they released me tomorrow morning.

"The wolf may steal away your daughter one way or another, Pops," I whispered, kissing his forehead. "But you taught me how to deal with them."

Now as long as I could deal with the wolf pinned beneath my spine, I'd be fine.


	45. Don't Like The Scene Anyhow

A/N: Sunshine Zali and Peter Ustanov? No, the neighborhood's not quite gone that far yet; Warg doesn't own 'em anyhow. Thanks to Words without for keeping watch on this fic!

And because inquiring pervy minds want to know: I generally leave the exact details up to reader imagination since Warg is not traditionally allowed to write porn, but when there is actual rotten anagram-for-subtext-style shagging going on, the bangles - er, gloves will come off. (Among other things, but I don't mean to spoil, here.)

* * *

Hige glanced about the station nervously, trying to stay out of the way of the wolves. They'd not been too interested in dealing with their tagalongs, except for Zali. The tall man motioned his accompanying visitors forward, but Hige pulled the runt aside.

"Look, Toboe, if Kiba's not coming, and Tsume was _discouraged_ from coming, not that he really wanted to tag along in the first place, I don't know that it's so smart for us to be here, you know?" he hissed in the redhead's ear, clinging to the runt's bony shoulder and digging in his heels to keep Toboe from trying to march right past him.

"This isn't about what's smart. It's about doing the right thing." Hige recognized that look. He didn't argue too much with Blue, partially because she could give him that same cold-eyed, determined stare. Maybe Toboe didn't have quite as much to back up the threat implied in that look, but Hige knew that this was not going to be one of his easier interactions with his future brother-in-law.

"What's wrong with being smart?" Hige groused, releasing Toboe's shoulder and jamming his hands in his pockets.

"If you don't want to help, you don't have to be here." Sure, the runt would try to make it sound rational. The kid was crazy, that was all there was to it.

"Just try not to hurt yourself," Hige said, leaning against the wall where he'd be out of the pack's way. "Your pops and Tsume'd rip me apart if you stub your toe too hard. And worse, your sister would get a headache. Please don't give Blue a headache, runt, I'm begging you."

Toboe waved him off. "I'll be fine. I'm just sticking with Zali, after all."

"Yeah, that's what worries me," Hige muttered under his breath as the redhead scurried off to catch up with the wolf man in question.

To be fair, Toboe wasn't doing anything too different than what Hige did at his job: go for water, go for food, go for messages… Just fetch and carry stuff, Zali had assured them. Considering the way Kiba had been staring at the elder gray when Zali pitched his offer, Hige wasn't quite sure if he ought to ask carefully for the potential devil in the details or just flat out tell Toboe to forget the idea before he'd even heard the rest.

Tsume had confined himself to his room, saying something about not wanting to run into other patients, but Zali had very pointedly avoided that room before they left, choosing to inform Kiba and Hige of what was going on in the guestroom they were sharing. A practical method, yes, normal chain of events, sure, but on the level? Hige didn't quite trust Zali's intentions.

Hige offered to tag along, but made no promises about actually accomplishing much of anything at the train station. Somebody had to watch the runt, after all. Tsume was being paranoid and evasive, and Kiba was just plain weird (bordering on creepy sometimes), so that left it down to Hige.

Most of the wolves had dropped their human forms now. With this many giant predators around, Hige began to wonder how he'd ever managed to mistake Kiba for a dog. Even as Zali helped the last of his pack members into a harness, they still possessed something of the wild that no dog could ever copy.

"You coming along, pup?" one of the wolves asked. "You look like you could pull the load without us."

"Don't spoil the illusion, gramps," Zali chided him, motioning Toboe along as they walked beside the sled. The big gray was the only one still in human form, and he didn't look particularly happy to be on the job.

Hige shrugged and followed along. Nothing seriously wrong yet, but if even the leader's job satisfaction level didn't look that high…

"Dog trainer gig, eh?"

"Something like that," Zali replied. His frown deepened. "Check the harnesses. Make sure everybody's in comfortably," the tall man directed his would-be assistants. Or perhaps just Toboe. Zali had left a hand on Hige's shoulder and dropped his voice to a growl. "And porky… Don't call us dogs. That's the only warning you're gonna get."

"Hey, just trying not to blow our cover, right?" the round-faced young man raised his hands innocently, and Zali released his shoulder with a light push towards the team.

"Don't play cute with me, porky. I'm looking for help, not another headache." The big wolf man raised a hand in greeting to the foreman, motioning the human over.

The approaching human smiled, but the wolf's response was mechanical and cool. "Bringing in some fresh blood at last, Zali?"

"Protégés," the tawny-haired wolf said, indicating Hige and Toboe. "Same dogs, though." Hadn't the wolf just said not to call them that? Hige shot him a curious look, and Zali furrowed his brow, silently daring him to mention something.

"I keep telling you, you oughta retire those mutts. They're getting too old for this," the foreman said.

"Yeah, I know." Zali's tone was clipped, frustrated. They'd obviously had this conversation before. "But they earn their keep. Best group I can get together." He patted Moss on the shoulder. The uncloaked wolf did not look particularly soothed by the gesture.

"Well, if you're ready, then…" the human motioned to the sled. It was a big sled, set not so much on runners as a flat sheet of metal. It wasn't a solid lump, but even unloaded, the thing looked heavy. A long rod extended from the front, with leather straps attached to it.

Zali nodded and motioned to the pair of humans following behind him. "Hook 'em in. Let's get this over with."

"Such a positive attitude about your vocation." Hige couldn't help himself. "That must be why they pay you so much. You guys do pay him well, don't you?" he asked the foreman. "'Cause the kid and I are getting a smaller share than the pack and I want to make sure there's a good profit margin in this business, you know?"

The man laughed. "I like this one, Big Z. Where do you pick them up?"

Zali shrugged and rechecked the last of the hookups. "Here and there. They come to me. You can keep _him_."

"Well, kids, the profit margin's better if we can keep the trains on time. Load her up!" The man banged on the side of the sled, sending a metallic echo ringing through the platform. A complaining crane began to stack packing crates atop the sled, nearly overloading the sturdily built carrier. Zali helped some of the human dockworkers steady the load and tie it down, motioning for Hige to push a few of the smaller items into better position. Even that was hard enough. Those crates were too heavy to lift!

"All right, let's move!" The foreman snapped a whip and the wolves strained at their harnesses. "Come on, you mutts, move it!"

"They're trying," Toboe protested, reaching to halt the man's hand before he could crack the whip over anyone's backs.

The man glared at him, pushing the runt away. "Trying doesn't move the sled, boy. I don't get paid until these goods get shipped, and you don't get paid 'til after that."

"You don't have to be cruel to them, though," the redhead insisted. Zali frowned and shook his head behind Toboe's back, but Hige thought he caught a hint of a smile in the tawny-haired wolf's eyes at last.

"Runt, you can't exactly take these guys home and set them out a litter box, you know." Hige attempted to call Toboe quietly back to reality before someone fonder of violence did it for him. "They'll be okay."

"Hige… you know what they're like. They shouldn't be put through… _this,_" Toboe finished awkwardly, spreading his hands to take in the whip, the incline, and the perilously heavy sled.

"Kid's an animal nut," Hige explained sheepishly to the foreman. "You wouldn't believe how much he loves them." Toboe flushed slightly at this, but he didn't back down.

"There're not just dogs," Toboe muttered rebelliously. Zali touched his shoulder, warning the redhead to let it go.

"They're embarrassments," the foreman supplied. "I think your wonder team has finally let you down, Big Z."

The wolf man was stone-faced. "They'll get there. We always get there."

"Maybe when you got a full team, you do, but you're missing a couple," the foreman observed. "You know how this works, Zali: no pull, no payment."

"Let 'em rest. Give them the scraps. We'll get there." Zali refused to give up, although one or two of his pack-mates in the harnesses had already flopped to the concrete floor in exhaustion. The sled had barely moved three feet.

"Not fast enough. Get them out of here." The foreman waved the dockworkers away from the crane. "Where am I gonna find someone else on short notice?" the man muttered, moving away from the pack.

Hige started to remove the harness attachments on the more exhausted wolves, but Zali still wasn't ready to give in. The tall wolf-man, too, had moved toward the sled, but the hook up he reached for had never been attached to a harness today. "Kid," the wolf man said, motioning Toboe next to him. "Help me get that other dog outta the back. You think you can watch these guys, porky?"

"As long as they don't cause too much chaos," Hige assured him, although he sidled towards the foreman once the two walked out of sight. The humans might not know what moved their sled, but Hige could tell which way the wind was blowing.


	46. Where I Can See It All

A/N: Got your calculator flipped, Niege? Here's your equation: Warg doesn't own them. (The answer to how Blue figured out what she was? See Chapter 42.) Thanks to Words without for the beta!

Nothin' like YouTube to help one rediscover the music one grew up with... Most of the songs that inspired the chapter titles, including Sheryl Crow's "There Goes the Neighborhood" (which shouldn't be confused with the Ice Cube song of the same title) and Blondie's "One Way or Another" can be found at youtube. com/view_play_list?p=CDB53F933FA1E1A0.

* * *

I wasn't expecting much wind, but with these large, open buildings and the trains speeding in and out, you never really knew. I pulled a wad of paper out of my pocket, tossing it gently upwards. Just a tickle to the left, then…

I adjusted the mill-dot pattern accordingly. Pops could practically shoot this thing from his hip, but I had my reasons to be careful. Toboe was nervous enough around the rifle without me scarring him not quite literally for life again.

He and Hige looked okay, I noted thankfully through the scope. Nervous and combative, sure, but that went without saying in the company of so many wolves. I shivered at the sight of their numbers, nearly twenty strong, all told. I'd definitely given Neige a low estimate over the phone.

All of the beasts except Zali were revealing themselves openly. What did they think they were doing, dropping their projections in such a highly frequented area? How much trouble had my brother landed himself in now?

At least I had a secure perch from which to free him – for now. I had little doubt that Moss and his associates knew this station well enough to find me nearly as soon as I risked a shot, and that Zali probably did, too. With any luck, they'd be too busy with each other to bother with humans, but that wasn't a risk I was willing to take with Hige down there and Toboe moving between the wolves.

They were fixing the creatures with harnesses, I noticed. The wolves were pretending to be dogs? Who did they think they were fooling?

The dockworkers, apparently. The foreman's welcome was not wholehearted, but he seemed to hold back more from exasperation than fear. How could he be so blind? How could_ we_ have been so blind? Did we really allow ourselves to see only what we wanted?

Watching the pack struggle and strain at the sled, I realized that perhaps we did. Maybe we did, at least until our eyes were opened to the alternatives. I set the rifle aside. I didn't wish to see that any closer up than I had to.

Naturally, something would assure that I had to. It was not so much Hige panting beside the dockworkers – the other humans would keep him from serious injury, I was sure. It was not even my little brother walking off with Zali. I didn't trust the wolf, but Toboe seemed to. He was naive, but my brother wasn't completely stupid. He'd call out if something was happening against his will. Hige and I could get to him in time. I hoped.

But what drew my attention away from the wolves, from my fiancé, even from my brother, was a figure in black. The dark form slipped along the edges of the anarchy surrounding the trains so fluidly, blending in so well with the movement of the other individuals, that at first I was convinced that it was a shadow, a figment of my imagination. Then an all-too-familiar knife was at the foreman's throat and I picked up the rifle, double-checking the sight to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind. The white wolf's growl rose to my perch and I knew I wasn't seeing things.

One way or another, Moss had his requested chaos.


	47. I May Not Be the Man You Want Me to

A/N: I don't own them. I'm not sure I'd want to. Thanks to Words without for looking over this chapter! And thanks to all you reviewers who've finally helped me get more reviews than there are chapters. (Extra points to the reviewers who can point out what the song title has to do with the characters involved here.)

Also, this chapter's been extended slightly from its original version. There are now twenty percent more crossover crack references. Personally, I'd try to blame the fem!Toboe writers for inspiring the parallel between Tsume and a certain Martian gangster for me, but I was the one who wrote the gray pup with a pageboy haircut, after all...

* * *

"I wouldn't move if I were you." Inwardly, Tsume cursed Kiba for not sticking to the illusions as they'd planned. Sure, they'd be causing trouble for Zali either way, but Tsume wanted the humans to associate that trouble with_ him_, not the "dogs" as big as the white wolf and every bit as wild-looking beneath the veneer of the civilized harnesses and surprised expressions.

Some of them were losing even that. Already unleashed from the sled, Moss had overcome his surprise to snarl right back at the interlopers, and attempted a few shaky steps in Tsume's direction before exhaustion dropped him to his haunches. The large, creamy brown male didn't say anything. His expression said enough.

"Look, if you're gonna steal stuff off the trains, just do it; don't hurt me…" the man pinned beneath Tsume's knife babbled in terror.

"I'm not here to steal anything from you," Tsume replied smoothly, ignoring Hige's incredulous questions behind him. "I'm here to help you. I think we can all come to a mutually beneficial understanding here. You need the pack here in good condition, and I have ways of keeping them in decent shape. Might even be able to do a little something for your trouble." Glancing out the corner of his eye, Tsume saw his lover hesitantly approach the tableau with a familiar-looking large gray, though the harness-rigged wolf herded the runt back out of reach.

"What are you?" one of the dockworkers asked, backing away from the white carnivore that offered a much greater range of displayed killing equipment than the dark-skinned gangster.

"We're far enough south that I don't suppose that they've heard about the Claw Gang," Tsume spoke conversationally as if to Kiba, or, in the minds of the bewildered human dockworkers, some other unseen menace beyond the white wolf. While the tall man doubted that they had heard of his gang specifically, he had no doubts that they knew the consequences of getting in the way of a group that routinely faced down nobles' best-armed guards and robotic killing machines. "We're almost into what used to be the Darcia territory, though I doubt that these people have had any real control over the local underworld since the Tigers went belly up. It's long past time we got a little syndicated protection here." He offered a slow, cold eyed scan across the gaggle of humans, silently warning Hige to shut his mouth before the young gray risked making eye contact with his former pack members. "We're here to get things arranged to the Claws' liking, and I'm authorized to do that by any means I see fit. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but let's just say my friend and I are animal rights activists." The white-blond nodded toward the sled.

Moss almost looked impressed despite himself. It figured that the older brown wolf would presume Tsume to be incapable of learning from any of his former pack mates, save Zali. The younger silver-gray might have modeled himself primarily after the current alpha male as a pup, but Tsume had not been blind to the rest of the pack, especially when it came to intimidation methods that Moss had used on him.

"Now, I know Zali knows the particular needs of this group pretty well, so I'll let you sort the details with him, but you will listen to him, because a train is subject to so many problems between stations, you know? The rails, the engines, the car couplings, the weather, the people on board... any of them could lead to an unscheduled stop, and we'd hate to think of what might happen if the goods are late..." Tsume used his free hand to pull away the whip from the foreman's limp fingers. "There's just one immediate request I've got: drop this. Get rid of it. Use it again, and my friend and I will find out." The gray wolf in human guise tossed it under the rails. "We're all pulling together here, after all, aren't we?"

Tsume looked up in order to avoid Zali's eye and caught a glint of gunmetal. He motioned for Kiba and their nervous captive to follow his gaze. "Depending on how you pull, of course…"

"We're pulling with you! We're with you!" So their would-be sniper wasn't with the humans. Tsume released the man, leaping away and upwards, searching for the shooter. Kiba followed, although not without obvious reluctance.

When Toboe walked out side by side with the last "dog," the foreman was in no condition to organize the sled pull. Toboe hooked the pack members in anyway, and joined Hige in pushing behind as the sled inched its way slowly but steadily up the incline, no whips in sight.


	48. I Do My Little Turn on the Catwalk

A/N: Taking hold of the Standard Female Grab Area (TM) does not allow one to own Wolf's Rain. Especially if you're grabbing one of the guys, like Blue did in Episode 3. (Yes, they all have it too. Get your mind out of the gutter and check out the TV Tropes page: www. tvtropes. com /Main/StandardFemaleGrabArea While you're there, it's not too much of a spoiler to encourage you to look up "Face/Heel Turn," is it?) This is evidenced by the way certain muses surprised even me. Yeah, PETA? Probably wouldn't like me _too _much. Thanks to Words without for betaing!

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed as Tsume came leaping up entirely too close, too fast. Kiba followed along after him.

His knife was in his hand, but the white-blond relaxed slightly upon seeing that I was holding the rifle, my father nowhere in sight. "I could be asking the same of you. Hige said that you and the old man were headed for the hills, the last anyone else saw you."

"Maybe I'm just intending to finish off what Pops started. It's the duty of a big sister to look after her baby brother." I adjusted the gun in my grip. Tsume flinched despite himself.

"If you wanted to shoot us, you already would have." Kiba was entirely too blasé about the weapon in my hands. Fair enough, I wasn't going to get excited about his teeth, either. He sniffed, tilting his head at me. "You know," the white wolf said, giving me a slow, self-satisfied wag of his tail. "You _remember_."

"I remember you saved us once, so I'm paying you back. That's it. Unless you two are willing to consider a Collar, that's all I'm willing to deal with you." I was not going to talk with these two about something I couldn't tell my father or my best friend. What would they know, anyway? One was as unwanted amongst his fellow wolves as he was among humans, and the other spouted nonsense nearly as often as he spoke. What was I supposed to remember?

"A collar?" Tsume sheathed his knife, smirking cynically. It was probably just a front, but he looked calmer than I felt. "For Toboe, I might be willing to try on a little spiked number, but I don't do leashes, Blue." He nodded towards the working wolves below. "I thought I made that pretty damn obvious."

The white wolf just gave me an impassive stare, as if he didn't believe that I'd even bothered to ask. I'd suspected as much. I chose to focus on Tsume for now; let the legal authorities deal with Kiba. "Look, my friend knows a way to restrain the wolf within you, to cure it. She calls them Collars. It's not anything that would hurt you," I told him. At least, not once you had already been wearing one for maybe twenty-four years. I'd never remembered it bothering my neck, but I never remembered being without it, either. "You'd never know it was there."

Tsume and Kiba traded glances, the dark-skinned man's brows quirking upwards in amused disbelief. The pale canine flicked an ear as if leaving this one to him, and Tsume walked towards me until he was securely out of view from below before dropping into wolf form. "You don't 'cure' what we are, Blue. It's not some monster lurking inside me. A wolf is a wolf, and while I'm not opposed to using the illusion for my own ends, you can't ask me to lose my fur, my teeth, everything that makes me who I am and say that it won't hurt me." Unconsciously, I'd turned the barrel to face the gray, but Tsume ignored it, circling me as if to give me a very good look at just how effortlessly his wolf form came to him.

The catwalk I'd chosen to shoot from was fairly narrow. I felt fur brush against my leg. "It's just another form of being," Kiba added. "A truer, more natural form than those human illusions. A wolf knows his own power, and he's not afraid to show it." He circled from the other side. My mind drifted back uneasily to yesterday's encounters with the other wolves. "Why are you?"

"Because I have to believe there's some humanity in me." I pulled the trigger, not really aiming, but at this range I figured I couldn't miss. Kiba stumbled, but he shook it off, merely favoring the leg I'd winged him in.

Tsume didn't hesitate, either, shoving me down and placing heavy, clawed paws upon my back. Pop's rifle slid to the edge of the catwalk. "As much as I'd love to end this right here, I've already got reasons for wanting to make a quick escape. Can we please not add killing my runt's sister practically in front of him to that list?"

"How quickly do you need to get out of here?" Kiba asked, sniffing my face with a trace of amusement. His breath was warm, damp, and smelled of old blood.

"Two hours ago," the gray said, ignoring my squirming struggles for a weapon, a target, - hell, I'd have settled for a breath of fresh air. As skinny as Tsume was, there was too much weight on my back, all of it in the thoroughly disorienting and disgusting form of leanly muscled wolf.

Kiba turned and limped out of my field of vision. "Then bring Blue and let's go. But this time, can we take a passenger train?"

"If we can get a roof, yeah. I don't have money for tickets." I let out a yelp as Tsume unceremoniously switched back to human form and threw me over his shoulder. I kicked with extreme prejudice, at least knocking the wind out of him when the steel toe of my boot made contact with something soft, and he staggered as he started after the wolf. "Blue, don't do that."

"What the fucking hell do you two think you're doing? It's bad enough leaving Toboe and Hige down there with those other wolves and Pops in the hospital, but you think you can use me as goddamned _hostage_?" I was at a bad angle to bite Tsume, but I loosed the switchblade and sunk it deep. The white-blond cursed and threw me off.

"I _told _you they wouldn't be happy about us just carrying them off." The yellow eyed man put a hand to the blade that had scraped against his lower right ribs, flinching as he did so. The white wolf didn't bother answering, running after me as I rose to my feet and made my way back towards the lower levels. How were they still moving so damn fast?

Kiba toppled me before I could get down to the balcony ramp. "I don't want to hurt you, Blue. You were a good friend in our last lives."

"Too bad." I slammed an elbow up, trying to rid myself of the bloody wolf. Something tapped against my skull, and the world went dark.


	49. Never Want to Turn Your Back

A/N: Keep it together, I don't own them. Thanks to Words without for the beta job!

I know others use the italics convention to note when one of the wolves is talking in wolf fom, but I never have and never will differentiate between speech in wolf form and speech in human form because the illusion doesn't affect their speech in the manga or the anime. Sometimes it may be slightly confusing, but there'll be in-story clues to figure out who's in what form if it's important. I trust you to figure it out.

Yeah, the line that inspired Chapter 47's title can be applied equally to Tsume, Toboe, Zali, and even Kiba and Blue to a certain extent, but the song title is "Fire Escape," and we're dealing with Moss, Ethan[e], and Wormwood, (with references to Cole, Gauss[ian flare], and [Salt]Pete[r],) on a platform that shares a call-sign with the Rolls Royce Mustang... (Yes, Warg is a geek.) Best see who escapes the conflagration, no?

* * *

"Where is he?" Moss snarled as he entered the clinic. "And don't tell me he's dead, because ghosts don't threaten our livelihood like that." The pack had managed to work the sled most of the way up the ramp before they heard a cry from the upper levels. After that, things had descended fairly quickly into chaos.

Hige had been the first to recognize the source, as well as the rifle that slid out to teeter on the edge of the catwalk. "Stay safe, Toboe," he'd instructed his younger companion, working his way around the sled and up the ramp. The boy hadn't listened, following right after him.

Moss had staggered as the pack absorbed the released weight, but so had Zali, and Wormwood was an expert at ridding himself of the harness, even under pressure. Moss followed suit, wishing that Gauss had been there to join them. And just what did Ethan think he was doing, tugging along as if he knew nothing about their plans, as if he really were just some old dog of Zali's?

_Strays_, the large, creamy-brown wolf thought dismissively. Once a wolf left its own family, there was nothing to assure any pack dumb enough to take it in that the vagabond wolf wouldn't just turn traitor to them, as well. Look at Zali. Look at Tsume. Ethan had seemed steadier, cooler of head in his advanced years, but he'd joined the pack even later than those two. All Moss could really count on were his siblings, and even they had their blind spots. Gauss's had been deadly, but Cole's was worse: Cole's was Zali.

Part of Moss wanted to remove that weakness where he stood, straining with his pack against the weight of the sled. It was tempting, watching the big dark gray struggle in that harness, condescending to do an honest day's work that might yet be his last, if Moss let his lower instincts get the better of him. How rarely Zali pulled with them, nose to tail in the harnesses! No, the scarred alpha was too good for that; he had to "deal with the humans!" There was no human managing them now. If Moss and Wormwood ripped out Zali's throat now, it would simply be a dogfight. At worst, the humans would complain that they'd have one less animal to pull, one more body to drag to the trash.

But it really would mean one less pulling, and one stoically pained expression on his little sister's face. Cole wouldn't cry in front of him; Moss knew her too well to fear that. But cry she would, and he'd be leaving her pups fatherless in this cruel old world. It might be better for them, but Moss respected the bonds of blood too much to do that… yet.

For now, it was enough to come flying up on Zali's flank, biting deeply into the gray wolf's side, knowing that Wormwood was providing distraction by harrying just as rabidly at Zali's right side. The tall gray tried to twist and snap at them, but only tangled himself further in the harness. "Forget what your pet traitor said. The humans will be answering to _me_ from now on, and so will you." Moss warned him in an undertone, changing his grip to the long scar down the side of Zali's face. The rest of the pack yelped and whined as the charcoal colored wolf shook himself hard enough to yank the entire line of harnesses, but the alpha - _former_ alpha, Moss corrected himself gleefully - still couldn't remove his challengers. Grudgingly, Zali stilled and sank into defeat.

The creamy brown wolf was hardly stupid enough to change form in front of the human dockworkers, but he didn't bother to pick up the pack's monetary reward for a job well done. Let Ethan retrieve it from the humans once the foreman arose from his quivering ball of fear, or let Zali do the one part of alpha work he'd been good at. Moss had won, and he was finished here. Before the humans could do more than yell at the "rouge dogs," Moss and Wormwood left for the clinic to share their news with Cole, and perhaps track down the other gray wanderer that needed to learn his place.

Moss would not hesitate to kill Tsume. That worthless little runt should have died years ago. Until his appearance today, Moss thought Tsume had. The traitor still bore the heavy scar from their alpha's bite; the chest wound that should have left his heart pouring quite literally out of his body after the damn young gray had led them into an ambush and then summarily abandoned them. Zali was supposed to have been leading that group, but he couldn't even control his runt, even then. Was it any wonder that Zali had brought the pack to this, once more with the help of the dark-skinned sliver-gray?

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cole said. So she wanted to deny his existence entirely? Fine; Moss could play that game.

"Well, wherever he is, he'd better keep running." As soon as he could be spared, Moss would send Wormwood after the troublemaking punk. There would be no more games here but Moss's own.


	50. Somehow I Got to Carry on

A/N: This Rain I do not own, even after fifty chapters. It's probably for the best, as I am really not that great at action scenes and tend to be a bit of a Robert Jordan when it comes to minor characters: why _hello _shiny plot digressions... Ahem, back to three of our primary hero- er, protag- well, let's just leave it at main characters. The island pack subplot ties back to Blue, Tsume, and Kiba eventually, we swears. Thanks to Words without for the beta!

Right, also, concerning the song from Chapter 48: any resemblances between this fic and a certain R-rated series on MediaMiner in which the Wolf's Rain pack and the Bebop crew star in a dramatic, rather twisted yaoi version of Zoolander are entirely coincidental, I'm sure. Same goes for this fic and the standard set-up for Blue/Tsume matchups... or Blue/Kiba... or Tsume/Kiba... No comment. But looky, "Fated Rain!" - www. fanfiction. net/s/2120902/1/Fated_Rain - It's The Utterly Screwed Up T/T Relationship of Doom(TM) done right! (Yeah, Warg loves her some twisted relationships, but she is an optimist after all. I highly doubt "Blues" will ever get that dark, even if I ever manage something M-worthy.)

* * *

I awoke to the feel of wind rushing over my face and the steady click and whirr of railroad cars over the track. It was freezing out here, although there was a slight warmth to my left. "Morning, Sunshine," a familiar but highly unwelcome voice greeted me. Tsume sat facing the rear of the train we were perched on, arms wrapped around his legs and his rattail whipping fitfully about his face in the wind.

I glared up at him, reaching for the switchblade, then my pistol. Both were gone. "You try to manhandle me again, and I'll break every bone in your arms, starting with your wrists."

Tsume smiled indulgently as if I were a vaguely amusing dog that had just learned a not-particularly-clever trick, like barking madly on command. "Aren't we feeling original today?"

Whatever. I wasn't in any mood to play nice. "Every. Single. Bone, Tsume. And I've seen Hige's textbooks. I know where they're all located."

"Fair enough." The yellow-eyed wolf in human form almost looked apologetic. For all of two seconds. "Just so you know, this was all his idea. I hate dealing with captives. It never ends well." The white-blond touched his back again where I'd stabbed him.

"So you've made a hobby of kidnapping people?" I sat up, then turned and scooted even with my brother's rouge boyfriend when the wind resistance tore the water from my eyes. At least facing backwards, I could see something, although I had not yet gotten a hint of Kiba's location. I wouldn't let Tsume out of my sight, at least.

He shrugged carelessly, never meeting my eyes, although it could simply be because of the wind. "I'm not proud of everything I've done, but I wouldn't say that's a habit of mine." Pressing his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, Tsume glanced over his shoulder as if to look for the wolf currently out of sight, but hardly out of my mind.

"How about this friend of yours? Does she get a lot of willing 'patients' for her Collars?" The unseen white canine asked.

"It does seem funny that you only bring it up after you're brought to pack territory," Tsume agreed.

What could I say? I really didn't know. I'd been too young to have much of an opinion at the time, however grateful I might be to have a Collar implanted now. "Wolves don't exactly reveal themselves openly. Why would anyone publicly advertise a cure to a disease that doesn't exist?"

"It's not a disease," Kiba snapped back at me.

"Do I look sick to you?" Tsume snarled almost at the same instant. The platinum-blond had pulled out a knife, but this was not his favorite spiked knuckle blade dangling from his fingers. It was my own switchblade, cleaned and sharpened, and Tsume did not hold it as if he was preparing to return it. "Get it through your head: we're not going for that."

"So just where are you going? Paradise?" My fingers clawed restlessly at the corroding metal beneath us. Just let him try to take a stab at me. Maybe he was faster, maybe he was stronger, maybe he had backup and my weapons and a better clue as to where we were - I had none; the conifer-dominated wilderness we passed through could have been miles from any civilization, for all I knew - but I had a lower center of gravity, and on the roof of a speeding train, losing his balance could be all it would take to get him killed, even if he took me down with him.

"We're all going there," the white wolf corrected me more gently this time. His tone was still firm, his belief unwavering. "Hige and Toboe will catch up."

"Yeah, and then they're going to kill us," Tsume snorted halfheartedly, letting his natural unalloyed cynicism shine through. He palmed my knife, letting it vanish back up his black leather sleeve. The dark-skinned man glanced at me once more from the corner of his shades, noticing the way my hands shook in a mix of chilliness and anger. I was not scared. Not of this punk. I could still smell the blood on him and Kiba from where I'd wounded them. "You can't feel your fur with a Collar, can you?"

I adjusted the scarf around my neck, tucking it into my coat so it wouldn't whip into my face. "You're right about one thing at least, Tsume."

*


	51. You're Gonna Leave it All Far Behind

A/N: Not mine. Well, I might claim Marakova, with shoutouts for the other laboratory rats from the After Paradise forum. If you recognize Macintire, though, it's something positive, but if you don't... well, Appledelhi never remembered his name, either.

Also, I usually gauge my update timing by hits, but since that had been on the fritz since the beginning of the year until very recently, I may have to break down and wait for at least a week to pass between chapters and/or for multiple reviews. I know Snodin's been keeping up, at least! ;)

* * *

"Dr. Lebowski, ma'am?" The junior scientist addressing her flinched, knowing that Cher could be very particular about proper forms of address, and in the midst of a divorce, there really wasn't a proper way to get her attention without also earning her annoyance. Lebowski was an artifact of things gone wrong, but she wasn't quite ready to use Degre just yet. Hubb was not that quickly cast aside, for all his faults. (These included perpetual stubbornness and a sad, blind devotion to legality and tradition, naturally enough… Why hadn't she just kept her maiden name and saved herself at least one less headache?) About the easiest to deal with right now was "Dr. D" from those who knew her well.

"What's the matter, Dr. Marakova?" Cher tried not to snap. The woman meant well. Probably. There were days when Marakova's eagerness for results could scare her project director, but then Cher's dedication to her work could scare _everyone_, at times. Lady Jaguara's labs recruited for raw talent and enthusiasm, after all, not people skills. Not moral fortitude, Cher worried.

"Lady Jaguara is on line one for you." The brown-eyed scientist handed Cher a telephone, handling it as if she was afraid it might explode or poison her merely via contact. Cher took it without comment, giving Marakova a nod once she'd identified herself to the noble waiting on the other end. Lady Jaguara did not like to be kept waiting.

"Degre-Lebowski," Jaguara said before Cher could even finish. "It has come to my attention that you harbor a fondness for certain extinct animals, wolves in particular."

It seemed a strange topic for a phone conversation, but who was Cher to second-guess her employer? "Well, what child didn't grow up with_ The Adventures_ _of Macintire and Appledelhi _and a healthy imagination?" She attempted to keep her tone light.

"Perhaps, then, you can help me with my missing moon. There will be a car waiting for you in front of the complex at the end of your shift. Do not tarry. I have others who can keep the experiment progressing apace_. You_ are needed elsewhere."

"Yes, my lady," Cher replied, feeling the strangest sensation of relieved déjà vu. At least she had been asked. At least she was needed. And because Cher knew she would need to be able to come back to the lab, she met her ride promptly at quitting time.


	52. We're too Cool to be Alone

A/N: In the real world, Warg doesn't own them, just a copy of the manga and of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. You know who Blue's paraphrasing.

Thanks again to my reviewers! Now, the good news: no chapters between here and Chapter 61 are under 600 words, most are over a thousand, and the number of publicly revealed wolves is just about to go up. The only potential bad news is that I'm cutting into my buffer of pre-written chapters. I'm probably not going to be out until March, at the curent rate, but fast, long, and high-quality updates: pick any two.

Funny you should ask about Granny... While she's also a little more involved in the prequel, "Shots in Paradise," there's a flashback featuring her coming up soon. A bit of Tsume's motivation is revealed this chapter, and Toboe gets his chance to try to work it out next chapter. Let's just say that the Sedaris quote from "When You are Engulfed in Flames" is not merely there in Chapter 43 as an uke/seme parody...

* * *

I'd give my captors this much: they weren't the type for inane conversation. The three of us rode in silence through several fleeting miles of forest, allowing me to stew. I tried not to let it ruffle me.

I saw no specific change in scenery when I heard Kiba's weight shift behind me, followed by a soft grunt as he moved to the edge of the roof. "You're not even thinking about it." Tsume had moved from my side to catch the white wolf before he could leap from the speeding train.

"It's just up ahead, Tsume. Hurry, or we'll pass it by." Kiba's voice held no concern for his own safety.

"What? Paradise?" I asked, turning to get a look at them. My brother's boyfriend had grabbed the white wolf by the scruff, his body low against the roof. The hand was probably mostly for my benefit.

Golden eyes stared resolutely into mine. "Hurry," Kiba repeated. Then the pale wolf twisted out of Tsume's grip and leapt into space.

I felt my eyes grow wide. "He's insane," I murmured, clutching the fast-moving metal beneath me.

"Yeah." Tsume swung his legs off the side, practically daring an overhanging branch to take out his shins. "You need a hand?"

"You don't mean to –" the last part of my sentence was swallowed as something jerked my arm and I felt my stomach in my throat. I barely heard Tsume's command to roll before I made impact, knocking the wind from me. I tumbled through what felt like half a mile of sharp pine needles and fallen branches on permafrost-hard ground before a tree trunk brought me to a sudden, equally hard stop.

I should be dead. I knew I was bruised, and I tasted blood from my lip and my arm where I'd pulled it over my head to try to support my neck. "Ow," I attempted. I was still breathing, for better or for worse. "Shit. Ow."

A familiar insistent dark hand pulled me into a sitting position. "If you start whining on me, I'm going to find that Collar and rip it out of you." I socked him in the side of his mouth, but my heart wasn't in it. Tsume staggered slightly, but remained standing before me, arms crossed in impatience and teeth barely refraining from an annoyed snarl. "It's slowing you down, Blue. And given the choice, if I really have to have someone's complaining ass thrown over my shoulder the whole trip, whose do you think I'd prefer?"

"Toboe's, I would have thought." I rubbed my stinging knuckles and wriggled my toes, considering that I really should have checked myself for broken limbs before punching Tsume. They hurt, but I didn't think anything was broken, at least. How, I had no idea.

"Yeah," Tsume said dryly, running his tongue across his teeth and rubbing his jaw. "The runt doesn't hit so hard."

"So why did you bring me and not him?" I locked my arms around my bent knees, trying to look for open wounds now that I'd checked the internal injuries. There was nothing serious, anyway.

"Besides the fact that you were the one with the gun pointed at my pack and my runt and I didn't have time to pull him safely away from the humans without giving you all the free shots you wanted?" he asked in return, lightly smacking the side of my head when I lowered my eyes. "Hey. My face is up here." Tsume refused to let me brood. "This isn't going to be an easy trip, Blue. You and I can clear out a little bit of the trouble before our boys come up along the path." The white-blond looked away, as if trying to find Kiba. "I'm about to be an uncle, and I remember what it's like… trying to bring kids to paradise. Even teenagers." From the softening, distracted tone of his voice, Tsume was not entirely speaking from the role of a guardian. He appeared to reconsider that last part from something in my movement and hastily added, "And you make one smart remark about Toboe and me concerning that, and I _will_ hit you. I want to take him there, Blue. I just want it to be by a sure road."

I stood and considered the quiet forest around us. The train had long since sped on down the tracks. "Explain to me how I'm supposed to make jumping off a moving passenger car any easier."

Tsume gave me a toothy grin. "You and Hige act as the landing platform." He ran before I could take another swing at him, a gray shadow disappearing into the trees.

_*_


	53. Playful Hearts Can Sometimes Be Enraged

A/N: Yes, Toboe gets the kickass G'n'R coming-of-age theme. Every now and then, I gotta throw the runt a bone for everything I put him through. Fortunately for him and everyone else in Wolf's Rain, I don't own them. Because how vicious would a true fan of Star Wars and The Princess Bride have to be, that she could threaten "As you wish"/"I know" with a Tsume/Zali-type future? It's indecent, I tell you. ;) (0000, you've given a name to the crack ship, now. It's only a matter of time before Tsume/Zali's _S.S_. _Indecent_ gets spread around the 'net like pumkin pie, and then we'll really be in trouble.) Thanks again to my three long-time repeat reviewers!

Also, since you asked, part of what Warg does while she's procrastinating on - er, _brainstorming _for upcoming chapters of "Paradise Blues" is help mod the biggest Wolf's Rain RP forum on FFnet: "After Paradise." Tsume and Quent receive fairly similar if somewhat softer characterizations as part of the Laboratory arc there. Minor characters Gauss and Marakova get expanded roles in their individual storylines, and then I've got several other characters there who may or may not ever get cameos here... We're kind of quiet at the moment, as I'm writing more "Blues" and less of the Lab arc right now, but as the sign goes, we ain't dead yet. Feel free to jump in, if you'd like to; we're still missing Hubb, Cher, and Lady J and we always welcome OCs, especially by those who know their canon.

* * *

_Clink. Clink. Clink._

Toboe was still in shock. He wasn't processing everything around him correctly. There was no way that Tsume – _his _Tsume had just threatened a man's life and then kidnapped Blue. The fact that Tsume was a criminal had been less of a surprise than the fact that the white-blond was a wolf – Toboe had met a couple of the men who called his boyfriend "Boss," and while they were never precisely afraid of the auburn-haired boy, they did fear his tall, yellow-eyed partner. Tsume had always seemed shorter of temper whenever one of his subordinates came by the small apartment, more than the "botched jobs" and other "business problems" ought to account for if he were merely running a legitimate "moving company," as he and Sedo euphemistically referred to their work. Tsume tended to shoo Toboe away whenever "business" concerns came up, but his place was small and Toboe had good ears.

Still, it was a large jump in the small, brown-eyed runt's mind between running a gang of thieves – which a part of Toboe could romanticize into something dashing, almost dreamy in its bad-boy wrongness – and stealing away his big sister. Blue was not an easy woman to capture, either, and Toboe doubted that he'd see both of them in one piece again.

Surely, there had to be some explanation for Tsume's behavior. Hopefully, Toboe would be able to hear it one day, but it was probably just as well that he didn't have to try and hear it explained now. The redheaded teen could feel bile rising in his throat as he followed Hige up to the catwalks, following the scent of blood and gun smoke and Blue and Tsume and Kiba.

_Jingle. _Toboe clasped his forearm, trying to keep his bangles from rattling further. His hands were shaking again. He couldn't let himself get that angry. Pops and Blue and Hige and Tsume protected him; Toboe would have to protect them from his anger. Most of them, at least.

Toboe knew that this was probably an unreasonable limitation he'd put on himself. While neither of his adoptive family members was exactly the most demonstrative person in the world, Quent, in particular, was not shy in letting his opinion be known, good or bad, and didn't let paternal love for his children stop him from disagreeing with them from time to time, occasionally at length and quite loudly. It was Toboe's faint memories of his grandmother that kept the boy to his restraints: the unspoken promise to rein in his temper and the metal bracelets that represented and reminded him of it. Toboe had been too young to remember exactly what had happened. All he remembered was his Granny's disapproving expression and then the silence, broken only by the jingle of the silver bangles she had given him and his increasingly desperate cries until his Pops had found him and took him home to let the boy start anew.

Hige swore in front of him. "They're gone." Indeed, nothing remained on the catwalk but the rifle and the occasional small drop of blood. The wayward wolves had taken Blue atop a train, heading who knew where.

Trying to keep his fingers from trembling, Toboe knelt, flipped on the safety to the rifle, and pushed it open, counting the bullets left in the wheel. Only one had been fired. He closed it just as quickly, placing a palm flat on the catwalk to hold himself up and looked away, shutting his eyes. The gun wasn't truly that warm to the touch. The wooden grip wasn't slick with Blue's sweat or Tsume's blood. It was only his own hands that were so clammy.

"Blue…" Hige continued to stare at the tracks as if demanding an explanation from them. Perhaps he'd be able to puzzle out which train had been closest to this catwalk; Toboe hadn't been watching. "Just hang on, Blue."

Toboe didn't like to have to take sides, but if he had to choose between his sister and his lover… well, Blue was needed by more than just him. Toboe had always suspected that she was their father's favorite, not that Toboe could blame him, and then there was Hige to think about, too… Toboe's thoughts halted in their tracks.

But where was Pops, if not with Blue?

"I don't know, runt," Hige said, letting Toboe know he'd spoken the thought aloud. "But we'll find him, and Blue, too."

_And Tsume… _the rattle of his silver cuffs seemed to add. Toboe wasn't sure the last was a good thing.


	54. The Only Road I've Ever Been Down

A/N: As bittersweet as it is, I don't own Wolf's Rain.

* * *

A mountain. It had to have been a mountain. I scrabbled for a toehold with my boot, praying that my sweating hands could hold on just a little longer. _There has got to be an easier way to get up there, _I complained silently. Tsume had snorted the last time I'd spoken the words aloud, and voicing my opinions would not help me to get my breath back.

It was a really damn big mountain, sheer enough that I couldn't see where, if ever, it leveled out. Kiba was still ascending like he was more climbing vine than wolf. He certainly didn't appear human, even with hands and clothes and a pale, hairless, aqua-eyed face pointed determinedly towards the peak.

I'd stopped looking up much since the shower of dirt and pebbles, courtesy of Tsume. He probably hadn't meant to. The coffee-skinned wolf was keeping his jaw clenched to keep from panting, but he was breathing as hard as I was, trying to keep up with our possessed lupine guide.

Why was I following them? I'd told myself that it was better than following the endless, unchanging train tracks through the wild until something ran me over, but I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of that decision. Maybe it was the idea of paradise, no matter how farfetched it sounded. Maybe it was the call of Kiba's determination that pulled me and Tsume both along in his wake. Maybe it was just that I'd already climbed ten body-lengths up this stupid cliff and exhaustion and sheer Yaiden stubbornness insured that there would be no turning back.

The white wolf didn't waste words with calls of encouragement. Tsume and I would probably be just as likely to try kill him if he had. Still, his wordless cry of victory as he reached the ledge spurred me to climb faster. _Almost there, _I tried to reassure myself as another spray of dirt rained down with a muffled curse from Tsume. He didn't reach a hand down to help, and I didn't try to grab anything above me but rock. I'd known better than to expect help from Kiba. The man didn't have tunnel vision so much as simply to live in another dimension of reality when he was focused on something.

I rolled up to the ledge, examining the withered grass beneath my hands as I tried to catch my breath and get back on my feet. At one point, this had probably been a garden of some sort, likely reserved for a noble's private use. Hence the insanely long climb… _They_ would have sky craft to scale such heights, and most of the rabble wasn't as tenacious or as obsessed as Kiba was.

If so, it had been abandoned for some time, now. The pool contained an old, lime covered fountain that gave no more than the merest trickle of water dripping from its weathered flower-petal inspired faucets and the whole pond was nearly overgrown with tangled lily pads. The shrubbery lining the pool might have shown some signs of horticulture, but only old ones. Bare limbs tangled with evergreens, choking the ends of both as they fought for clear space and sunlight. Of live flowers, there was no sign. It was far too late in the year for such things.

Tsume looked as bemused at the scene as I felt, but if I knew him better, if I'd been able to see his eyes beneath the sunglasses, I might have recognized the spark of half-forgotten memory that pulled him a few haunted steps closer to the water's edge. With Kiba, however, there was no mistaking his thought process.

He held his hands at his sides, not seeming to even remember them as he walked to the edge of the pool. The dark-haired man dropped to his knees before it, his expression still a blank stare, before Kiba dropped the illusion entirely. The wolf beneath looked as lost and abandoned as the thoroughly unconvincing image of a human had, with his forepaws soaked up to the knee in stagnant water and his snowy white rear and tail dropped thoughtlessly into the mud like an abandoned toy. "She should be here," he said hollowly, staring at the decaying stone fountain as if it would open up and release this mysterious female if he looked at it hard enough. "This is where we met her before. I can still catch a trace of her scent. You remember, don't you, Tsume?"

My brother's boyfriend barely turned his head in the wolf's direction, his dark mouth flattening into a thin line. It was hardly a confirmation, but unconsciously, we both knew who the white wolf was talking about. I didn't know who she was, even as I stood where she had once been found a lifetime ago, but there was something floral left in the mountain air, something that my deepest instincts told me would mean peace and safety, as it had once before. This, my hindbrain informed me, was Cheza's scent.

It smelled right, especially when mixed with the earthy, still bloody musk of the wet wolf. The rank smell of the predator by itself still sent chills down the sober, rational side of me, but as we moved into the wilderness, the addition of vegetation left my conscious worries in the dust as the smell of the alpha wolf drew out the creature barely contained within me. It wasn't simply the rationalization that I'd never safely return by the railroad tracks that brought me trailing after Kiba. That scent still pulled me, whether I admitted it or not.

"What is there to remember? There's nothing up here." Tsume tore his eyes away from the overgrown reflecting pool, stalking into the brush.

Even Kiba couldn't deny this. Snorting as if to refresh his nose and pick up a fresher trace of the trail, the white wolf reluctantly pulled himself away from the abandoned pool and followed halfheartedly after Tsume. The empty, half-wild garden was not what he had been expecting, and the cold silence of reality had seemed to take most of the wind from his sails.

He looked back at last as I tramped into the brush after him, as if the pale wolf had half-forgotten that I was following after. "She was here, once. She can't be far," Kiba told me softly, as if I might confirm the truths of his past life.

I scratched absently at the back of my neck and shrugged, avoiding that desperately searching bright golden gaze. This place was utterly unfamiliar to me. Only the mixed scent of wolves and flowers promised paradise, and there was still far too much wolf here and not enough flower for me to completely quiet my lingering doubts about Kiba's sanity.

There might be a little of it left.

*


	55. What's a Boy Supposed to Do?

A/N: Somehow, releasing a milestone chapter of my Wolf's Rain fic on Groundhog Day just feels appropriate. Dark, perhaps, but appropros. We haven't quite seen the last of Zali, Cole, Moss, and Wormwood yet for very important reasons, but there's another regular cast member returning before them... Before we go again, here's your disclaimer with a smile: I don't own them. I don't even own a Nissan anymore, though I loved the ol' clunker I learned to drive in.

* * *

They found the car parked just outside the train station. The door had been locked, but even the runt had learned the knack of prodding open the rear passenger's side lock with a stick through the never completely shut back window after having to do it enough times. Blue had left the key under the floor mat and her father's revolving pistol in the trunk - a dangerous combination, Hige thought, but still better than the possibility of both the car and the gun in the potential possession of a wolf. She had also left a bill from the local hospital in the front passenger seat, explaining where the old sergeant likely was, at least. Quent Yaiden's daughter and weapons had been discharged from the hospital's care, but the old man was still laid up, for better or for worse. Hige passed the papers to Toboe as the scrawny redhead climbed in next to him, still glancing at the gun in his trembling hands and then looking away, as if the boy was afraid that it would attack on its own if someone didn't keep it under control.

Honestly, Hige couldn't blame him. They had all warned Toboe about Tsume, but the brown haired man had never expected that when the yellow-eyed scumbag chose to break his boyfriend's heart, Tsume would be breaking Hige's, as well.

_Blue's a tough cookie_, the frizzy-haired man tried to reassure himself as he started the car. _She'll end up breaking _him.

Toboe, at least, seemed to settle down a little bit at this pale evidence of his father's relative safety. There was no telling in Hige's mind what might have happened to the old man, but at least Sergeant Yaiden was well enough to scrawl a shaky signature with his off hand. How well Hige and Toboe would be when they informed the bearish former soldier, sheriff, and bounty hunter of what had happened at the train station might be another story, but at least the runt's trauma might earn the younger of the two a little sympathy.

For once, Hige didn't try to talk the whole car ride. His initial sallies at conversation with the little redhead were brushed away with short, noncommittal grunts and monosyllabic answers. He might as well have Tsume in the car with him instead of the usually vibrant chatterbox of a runt, except that there would be no satisfaction in pounding the snot out of Toboe's doe-eyed face. "Kicked puppy" did not even begin to describe Toboe's expression, and for once, there was no art or hidden agenda behind it, just a frigntened youngster as lost in this world as Hige was.

"Hey, come on, kid," Hige tried one last time to cheer the boy up before they turned into the hospital. It hadn't been the most direct route, but Quent, at least, probably wasn't going anywhere until at least one of his wayward children returned to collect him. "We'll get her back. Your Pops is safe. And we'll get _him _back, too. Tsume and that white wolf both." The brunet's voice dropped to a half audible growl on the last two sentences. Kiba had seemed all right, if a little more than slightly lost in this world. Maybe it was merely being around another wolf that had allowed Tsume to abandon all pretense at humanity, and they should have expected something like this as soon as the dark-skinned white-blond had introduced them as his pack to Zali. But Kiba had jumped up after Blue right behind the gray punk of a wolf, and Hige was rapidly losing track of any reason he might have once had to trust either of the two self-admitted wolves.

Toboe ran his hands over the barrel of the rifle once more, assuring himself that it was still pointed towards the engine of Hige's old sedan, where it would likely do the least amount of damage if it should go off accidentally. The younger male gave no other response that he had even heard Hige.

The heavier of the two shook his head and pulled into the parking lot. The redheaded runt really was acting like his boyfriend, but telling him so would be worse than simply punching Toboe. A physical blow he could recover from. Hearing the same nickname that Tsume's mentor had used for the lightly built youngster's former boyfriend used on the honey-brown-eyed boy himself… That would be harder, now.

Toboe left Hige to deal with the nurses and receptionists, explaining their connection to Quent Yaiden to one barely sympathetic face after another. Of course, once they saw Toboe, more than one had wondered if the redheaded teen ought to be admitted on his own terms. Hige had glanced back, but Toboe had shrugged them all off. "I'm fine," he insisted tiredly, his voice and posture subdued but stubborn. "I don't need to burden you all with more busy work. Just let us see my Pops, please."

The receptionist on the sergeant's hall was less than thoroughly convinced by this display. "Your sister said the same thing," she observed mildly, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just fine." Toboe gritted his teeth. If Hige didn't know him better, the older male might have suspected that Quent's gun-shy son was twitching his fingers in search of a weapon instead of the jingling bracelets on his right arm. Toboe had been quick enough to abandon the gun in the car, hidden in the trunk next to its mismatched mate, but the boy's kicked puppy mien began to fracture as the curious receptionist drove him further into a corner. "And Blue's all right, too."

_Abuse him enough and even the sweetest dog might bite…_ The thought drifted warningly through Hige's head.

The eyebrow failed to lower. Toboe stared flatly at her for what felt like the most worrying three minutes of the brown haired man's already stressful day, and then at last the receptionist blinked first. "If you say so," she allowed with obvious reluctance. "Mister Yaiden's room is located just down this hall, the third one on your right." Toboe offered a curt, quiet thanks and fled.

"Thank you, ma'am," Hige said, giving her the most charming smile he could dredge up under the circumstances. "It's been a long couple of days, and hearing about his old man was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, you know?"

She made a dismissive noise, playfully shooing the brown-eyed young man after his future brother-in-law. "Just look after him, and yourself, too. We've requested enough medical transcripts from Freeze City for a month, at least."

Hige gave her a quick, playful half-salute before running to catch up with Toboe. He didn't need a doctor's advice to know that that was the safest course for his sanity.

Toboe had already entered his father's room by the time Hige had caught up with him, falling into a half-embrace as the boy collapsed against Quent's good shoulder with tears running down his face. The old man had to be delicate with his bandages, but Quent Yaiden's knuckles were pale as he clutched his surviving son to his chest. Hige leaned against the doorframe, hoping against hope that Toboe wouldn't be his only surviving child.

"You ready to go?" Quent did not look up at Hige as he asked the question, the answer already a given in both of their minds. If the old man thought that he would be hiding his tears against Toboe's shoulder, however, he wasn't fooling Hige.

"Soon as we can sneak you out of here," Hige confirmed. "The lady on the station is a regular pit bull, I swear."

Eyes too dark to properly categorize as gray or brown looked up at this statement, and the elder Yaiden stroked his son's hair reassuringly as he offered Hige a dangerous smirk. "I think we can handle her."


	56. It's Not Me, It's Not My Family

A/N: Wolf's Rain? It's not from my head. Props to Bones, because they own more of it than I do. Yeah, if you think Toboe's getting dangerous, all I can say is that you ain't seen Cheza yet. Beware the nice ones. Be very afraid of the nice ones. Because a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest, but an honest man... well, there was that cute little gray pup that Zali found in the prologue.... I don't own 'em, so I can't control them.

As a bit of shameless advertising, however, I'm putting up a third standalone prequel to this fic before the next chapter: "Sitting in Muddy Water"/"Staring Up at Where the New Moon Should Be." It's a one-shot Wolf's Rain/Cowboy Bebop crossover, (for a loose definition of "crossover:" it picks up after Cowboy Bebop ends and before Wolf's Rain begins;) advertised in the style of "The Man With No Name"/"A Life Less Extraordinary." (Which is a pretty gorram fantastic Firefly/Dr. Who crossover, by the way, if you follow either fandom.) Because let's face it: although Wolf's Rain is pretty much the only fandom you'll need here for anything more than shoutout gags, part of Paradise Blues' origins is the Real Folk. While "Sitting/Staring" won't spoil any character background or the plots of anime and mangas it's based on, it does include some of the underlying mechanics of "In Paradise" 'verse, including the origins of the wolves' illusions, the power of the moonflowers, and the rise of the nobles.

* * *

Tsume emerged from the thicker bushes ahead of us with barely a sound, shaking stray sticks from his heavy silvery gray pelt. "It's all clear," he informed us.

"If Cheza were here, she would have called to me," Kiba said with what could only be the slightest traces of the bitter disappointment that his lost posture reflected.

"She could have been hurt or captured," I reminded him with only a little bit of censure in my tone. I doubted that it would have affected him at all, if he hadn't already been dragged kicking and screaming back into the world around him by the unexpected lack of a greeting party atop the mountain.

The pale wolf shook his head. "It's not just her scent or her voice," Kiba said. "She calls me, and I run for her." To hear him say it, one would think that this unexplainable calling without sound, sight, or scent was a perfectly normal form of communication. I glanced at Tsume, who simply shrugged behind Kiba's back. Both of us obviously had come to the same conclusion: it was normal, at least for the voices in your head brand of crazy.

"Still, there could be others looking to capture us," Tsume said as he stalked back around Kiba, avoiding my gaze. Others like Hige, Pops, and Toboe, for one.

Kiba's thoughts led him to a different conclusion. "Soldiers," he agreed quietly, running his tongue across his jaws. He let out a sigh before starting off in a different direction than the one in which Tsume had patrolled.

"Should we follow him?" I asked the remaining wolf.

"No," Tsume said shortly, his paws taking him after Kiba anyway.

The scent of flowers was getting stronger down this trail. It wasn't so much a proper garden path as the way that the two wolves in front of me had shoved out of their way as they walked, but it offered something of the pacifying serenity that these places were famous for advertising. Neither darting perfectly straight towards their destination nor winding leisurely off into nowhere, the wolves had opted to follow the lay of the land, cutting through the greenery at the places of least resistance. After all, we might well face something more dangerous on an abandoned noble's property than a mere overgrown tree. Here in the ancient garden, my thoughts occupied with keeping up with Tsume, I couldn't let it worry me too much, however. I didn't know where Kiba was off to, but I was determined to find out.

After winding around several trees in a primarily northern direction, the three of us eventually came to a stop outside a large green-tinted glass dome that was maybe two or three times my father's height at its center and just as wide. Within it, I could make out the very tops of carefully staked climbing vines in a riot of many-petaled blooms.

"Here, perhaps," Kiba told us, his words more of a reassurance to himself than anything Tsume or I were supposed to make sense out of. "She said she had sisters in this place. She said she had been born in this dome."

There was one door, heavy and imposing and lined in steel. It was locked to the outside world and the glass was too thick for us to break with body blows or any small projectiles we might fashion from nearby rocks. There was no key pad on the door, just a heavy deadbolt too complicated for picking. Kiba had tried all of the above, his wordless yellow then blue-green gaze pleading with me and Tsume until we gave in and joined him in his tireless but ultimately futile foray on the walls.

"It's no use," Tsume declared with a last halfhearted scrape against the cool, dew-covered metal surface of the doorframe. Unlike the fountain we had passed by earlier, which had seemed to still be standing only by virtue of its solid construction, this green greenhouse seemed to have been properly maintained over the years. Whoever owned this land might have abandoned the gardens, but something was still going on in the greenhouse.

"There's got to be a way in. Those plants didn't grow themselves." I started to walk the edge of the hothouse, looking for a secondary entrance we might have missed in our rush at the door.

Kiba, at least, looked thankful for the support. He had resorted to pawing at the glass with his nose pressed against the door in his frustration. "We'll get there. We'll dig our way in, if we have to."

"Through who knows how many feet of concrete? No thanks." Tsume kicked aside the churned earth the two wolves had already dug up. Any closer to the building than a yard and the dirt became a thin, ornamental layer over solid building material. This place was less of a conservatory and more of a citadel.

"We're getting in." Kiba was forcefully shoving away the dirt, undeterred by something so commonplace as the absolutely impossible.

Tsume tossed me back my switchblade, leaving the weapon closed. Kiba might be hasty and blind to reality, but when it came to accomplishing his chosen goal, the white wolf had all the patience in the universe. I opened and closed my knife to check it for fresh scratches before stowing it up my sleeve and starting to push the accumulated dirt from the mouth of Kiba's hole. I wondered when my own patience with Kiba's unnatural obsession was going to run out. Watching Tsume join us, I wondered if it would even make a difference.

*


	57. Or Just a Better Way to Fall

A/N: Apologies for the lateness of this chapter, but most of my readers are probably as aware of FFnet's eariler breakdown as I am. (The server is _robust_, we swears!) Okay, so Cheza still hasn't shown up yet, and while one of the three guys is going to have a little furry problem within five chapters, we're not concentrating on the remaining Yaiden clan right away. I think you may recognize at least one of our usual suspects, however...

The owner of Wolf's Rain and Mr. Spiegel? Yeah, they're a pretty good read, but the position is taken. It's kind of freeing, actually, knowing that it's not me. And no, I'm not naming Sedo's five-times-great grandmother on a purely paternal line. Evil me, yeah I know... And as to Tsume's ancestry? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a rat-like thing of data dog in there someplace... He's certainly no hero protagonist. (Me? Make obscure references to a novel like Snow Crash as well Cowboy Bebop and rock music? Would I do that? Even if the Modest Mouse album hasn't been out as long as most of the chapters' theme songs, you bet your redneck katana I would.) ;)

* * *

"He's been gone for how long?" Hubb Lebowski fought to keep his frustration out of his voice. Spiegel was his most accurate informant when it came to gang activity, but the young man was not exactly forthcoming. To have Spiegel call the detective for a meeting meant that this was serious. Very serious. Hubb shouldn't scare the rat off.

"Two months, almost, now. T- the boss has always been unpredictable, but this is too long for him to just be hiding. It's his way to put the heat on the shipments nigh-on constantly for a couple weeks and then slip off, but he usually leaves ways for us to contact him. They're not there. His place is empty, and his bike's gone, and even his boy-toy is M.I.A." Spiegel adjusted his floppy hat, as if worried that this mysterious boss would suddenly appear at his mention and recognize the skinny young informant by Spiegel's trademark glossy black 'fro.

"The boss's place looks like it was abandoned in a hurry. I haven't gotten word from him since that 'Kiba' guy showed up. You guys haven't heard any word about another gang coming into this territory, have you, Lebowski? 'Cause things have been chaotic enough with just the boss disappearing, and if somebody's moving in, I want out. I know names. I know faces. I can still help with the investigation, but I'm not doing this eyewitness thing if it means I'm getting shot. The boss really wouldn't care if I did. I've got no reason to try to cover his back." Dark brown eyes darted about the alleyway, even checking up towards the rooftops and catwalks above. The only other living things in sight were a pair of ragged-feathered corvids croaking to one another as they wheeled far overhead, but Spiegel still seemed nervous.

"Where might he have gone, Sedo?" Hubb asked a little more gently, trying to keep Spiegel from bolting, conversationally or physically. Despite himself, Sedo Spiegel still possessed something of the traditional thieves' honor: he had never offered the detective names before.

Spiegel shrugged. "I think he skipped town. Can't say to where from there. But if you look up his boyfriend, I bet he went with him. The boss doesn't show it much, but he protects that kid, tries to keep him out of the gang's business. Either he just doesn't want another Gehl episode, or he's afraid of the kid's connections."

That name sounded familiar. Hubb made a mental note to look it up in the records database later. It still might not explain Cher's disappearance, since the gang leader had left before her, but at least locating another runaway would soothe Hubb's instincts to go run blindly after her. There had been no signs of trouble or foul play from the lab, after all; sometimes a person just wanted to escape the daily grind and just... be with the person he loved.

Or in Cher's case, get away from the one who loved her. Hubb couldn't completely blame her. He knew he'd been slowing her down and couldn't catch up; he probably never would be able to even move on with his own life as fast as Cher. She'd already signed everything that needed signing, and rather than waiting on him to come to terms with the divorce paperwork, she had already cut out of his life, leaving not just their apartment, but even the workplace that had slowly sapped her of her personal life. Maybe she'd figured out that the pace was too hard, even for her. Cher was a quick learner, after all. It just seemed _too _fast for Hubb, and he hated that she'd left no word, no forwarding address, no way for him to even come to terms with the fact that she was gone. The detective still preferred to mull over all the evidence before something like that seemed real.

"What sort of connections does this kid have?" Hubb asked, trying to pull himself back into the moment.

A pale, thin finger extended in Hubb's direction. "You guys, Lebowski. His old man's a cop or a bounty hunter or something. I've heard them argue about it."

"And you say the kid's disappeared? Is his father still around, or is the whole family missing?" This was beginning to sound like foul play, or child abduction, if nothing else. "I need a name if I'm going to find them, Sedo. I can't keep you safe unless I know who I'm looking for," Hubb said gently.

Spiegel sighed, tugging his hat lower on his head. "I don't know the kid's family, but I only saw a girl there when I dropped by looking for the boss. Didn't exactly look like she lived there. The boss calls him 'Runt,' or Toboe. Yeah, I guess Toboe is the kid's name. Don't know his last, though."

Toboe? Quent Yaiden's boy was involved with the leader of the Claw Gang? But that would make… "And your boss's name, Sedo?"

The turncoat gangster looked Hubb in the eyes, his expression drawn and his voice flat. "Tsume Suna."


	58. Where is My Mind?

A/N: Everything belongs to Bones, dig it? Thanks to my loyal readers, reviewers, and lurkers, "Blues" is now my biggest fic in everything but wordcount. Y'all? Are awesome, even the lurkers. ;) Even before editing and adding in the author's notes on the others, this is the shortest chapter up until 62. That's because Chapter 62 isn't completely written yet, but at least I'll have something nice and long for "Paradise Blues'" one-year anniversary, now.

* * *

We had created a tunnel. Its ceiling was still solid concrete, but it was long and deep enough that even I could crawl in after the wolves and not feel too claustrophobic. Kiba clawed at the rough stone overhead, leaving a trail of blood from his raw and scraped abused pads. All three of us were about the color of mud from all the dirt.

"This isn't working, Kiba," I said, resting on all shaking fours from exhaustion as much as from the lack of head room. "Let's rest a while and see if anyone who could let us in turns up. If not, at least then we'll be in better shape to try to break through solid rock."

"It wouldn't kill us to stop and hunt, either." The taller, leaner ball of dirty fur paused to stretch, cracking his spine back into shape with a series of pops that sounded much too loud when confined underground.

The combination of his words and snapping joints brought up one part about traveling with a pair of wolves that I hadn't particularly stopped to think about, even once I'd calmed down enough to try to rationalize my reasons for staying with them. What was I going to eat? My stomach grumbled sullenly, though it did not yet pain me enough to make me want to rush out of the tunnel in heeled boots on sore legs. I supposed I wasn't entirely too proud to eat whatever they caught if I had to, and with any luck, Tsume had not slipped so far away from civilization that he had entirely forgotten about human needs. Hunting might be his first instinct, but I had not been raised as a wolf. I cleared my throat to remind him, though the gray wolf ostensibly decided to ignore it.

"Blue's right, though. Humans always return sooner or later. They're like cockroaches. It's part of their charm." The lean yellow-eyed wolf dropped back into his human form, crossing his legs and placing his hands behind his head as if he had every intention of falling asleep right where he lay in the tunnel.

I glared at him, though Tsume chose to ignore this as well. "You do realize who you're including in that statement."

Kiba allowed our bickering to at last distract him from the concrete above, if only for the moment. "Not Hige or Toboe, if he knows what's good for him." The muddied white wolf stepped over us, heading towards the entrance. I might have called his walk delicate, if he hadn't intentionally put weight bearing clawed feet on top of us both. Still maintaining his watchful air, Kiba curled up at the mouth of the tunnel, his eyes and ears alert for signs of humans. "They'll make it back to us, too, though."

"Yeah, but do you honestly think you can convince them to follow you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Kiba flicked an ear briefly back towards me before focusing once more on a potential gateway towards his long-lost mystery woman who smelled of peace and flowers. It was answer enough, though how much of his confidence was actually unreasonable was another question entirely. Tsume and I were still here, after all, even if we'd managed to get a brief respite from our latest impossible task.

I knew I ought to rest while I could. Tsume's eyes were covered by his ever-present shades, but the rise and fall of his scarred chest had slowed and steadied, leaving the watch to Kiba. Part of me envied his ability to fall asleep so quickly, but my brain still buzzed from exhaustion and the unfamiliar surroundings, which were far from comfortable despite the floral scent trail.

As curious as I might have been about what fate might await us if I were to follow the wolves to paradise, a part of me - the _sane _part, half my instincts insisted - wanted to return to the life I'd known before Kiba, no matter how simple or untrue it might seem to these two wolves that goaded me on towards places unknown. I couldn't leave from here; not now, not while I was still negotiating a path between the human life I'd been comfortable with and the newly awakened drive of the wolf hidden deep within me. But maybe...

Maybe once we'd seen Kiba to his Cheza, I could bring myself - allow myself to walk away from these two and turn back home, with a clear conscience and a clue about where I was headed. I didn't know where I was, but once paradise was in sight, Tsume and Kiba would probably leave me to find my own way. They weren't exactly curtailling my movement even now, after all. Besides, no matter what else one might say about Freeze City, it was a place you could always come back to. It was part of the city's charm.

*


	59. If You Start Me up, I'll Never Stop

A/N: Don't let's start; I own nothing. Me? Sic a practical Space Lion on Tsume? Fortunately for Tsume, Toboe, and Darcia, it's not mine, so even if the white-blond would make the mistake of turning away the effeminate redshirt with a crush, I'm not in charge of the heterochormatids. Just so you know: detailed reviews = more plotbunnies = higher quality chapters, perhaps even faster.

* * *

Toboe remained glued to his father's elbow as they walked out into the hospital parking lot. The sun, already past its zenith, glared down on them as the three men made their way to Hige's car, and Quent couldn't help but wonder where the time had gone. The day had started out as if it would prove much too long, waiting for Blue to move out to the train station and return with her brother. Quent had expected Hige to come back with her if he could, and half of him had expected trouble with his youngest child's significant other, but the bearishly built man had as much suspected that Toboe would try to convince the wolves to come back with them, too. You didn't leave your partners behind, after all. Quent Yaiden had had that lesson drilled into him during his days in the army, and for better or for worse, his children had taken it to heart, as well.

The doctors had been reluctant to discharge the old man, insisting that he really ought to remain at least one more night for observation. Quent, for his part, had observed about all he wanted of the sterile, featureless emergency room. "I think I'm perfectly capable of getting a bandage changed if I need it," Yaiden had insisted, daring any of them to contradict him. True enough, he would have trouble changing it himself, but his son was standing by, clinging desperately to what ties he had left.

He and Quent both. Even once the older Yaiden had been released - highly grudgingly - from the hospital with his cast in a sling and strict instructions to keep his left arm as still as possible as well, the gray-haired man had little idea of how to even begin to track down his daughter. Sooner or later, the wolves would be headed towards paradise, wherever that might be located. Given a time table from the train station and the rough coordinates of the catwalk, the three men might narrow down the kidnappers' trail to one of perhaps half a dozen trains, all headed in far-flung differing directions at very high speeds. The closest thing they had to a lead, unfortunately, was the pack of wolves that had thrown Tsume, the pack Quent Yaiden had all but instructed his daughter to kill.

They probably weren't too fond of him, either.

Toboe had held the door for Quent as if the wounded man weren't capable of getting it himself before sliding in next to his father, his face an expression of silent worry. Hige put a hand against the passenger seat, turning to check on the pair of men seated behind him. "Want to go by Cole's place?" he asked, obviously having no better idea of what to do than his fiancee's father.

"Don't know where else to start." Quent shrugged unhappily.

Hige nodded, his eyes on the rearview mirror as he started the car. Heavily built father and small runty son rested exhaustedly against each other in the back, and Quent moved to put his arm around Toboe. "Try not to stress yourself, Pops," the boy told him with quiet seriousness, his big light honey brown eyes heavy-lidded as he laid his head against the elder Yaiden's blocky shoulder. "The doctor said you shouldn't be moving your arms too much." Toboe gripped the large weather-beaten hand in his own as if to stabilize it against his chest, the silvery bangles clinking as Toboe pulled his father's steadying arm close.

"We'll be all right." Quent tried to reassure his son, squeezing the towheaded boy's fingers in his own. "I think I can risk this much, at least."

"Better let me and Toboe do the talking once we get there," Hige said, turning towards the parking lot of the veterinary clinic. "They owe us for services rendered." There was something colder in the frizzy-haired man's voice that made it nearly unrecognizable, something like the beginnings of a growl.

Toboe let out a shaky breath as if trying to collect himself, giving his father's hand one last good squeeze before he spoke. "We can't forget what's happened, but we can't stop trying to find out _why_ it happened, either. We have to try to be fair."

It made Quent feel old, watching his youngest child try to grope his way towards justice. A bounty hunter usually didn't ask too many penetrating questions about his target's guilt or innocence. A soldier was discouraged from doing so. But for a cop, for a sheriff, asking those tough questions was part of doing the job right. And of all the professions the elder Yaiden had taken up over the years, there were none that he had been prouder to have than that gold-embossed shield in his Kyrios police folder ID.

The bearishly built man gave his slender son's shoulder a gentle pat. "Just don't forget to be fair to yourself, too, Toboe."

The younger Yaiden offered his father a shaky half-smile, running his fingers once more over his silvery bangles as Hige stopped the car in front of their destination. "I won't, Pops. We'll be back soon." With that, he and Hige stepped out of the car and back into the wolf's den, leaving Quent Yaiden to wait and watch out of the rear passenger window as the boys walked towards Cole's clinic.

They hadn't been out of sight long before Yaiden was distracted by someone tapping on the glass. "Hope you're comfortable, old man." The last time Quent had seen that face that considered him like a piece of meat from just beyond the car window, it had been hanging off his arm.

The elder male that pushed the wolf away was hardly a more reassuring sight. "Go talk to your sister, Wormword."

"Don't see why you get to play with him," the younger wolf complained.

Ethan smiled and waved his cohort inside, cutting off the sleepy-eyed blond's complaints. "The pup's probably in there. You go take care of him. I know you'd make a mess of this one and I don't want to clean up entire the parking lot." The older wolf's eyes glittered as he contemplated the wounded man, leaning against the partially open window. "It's nothing personal, after all. Just need to know who's the top dog around this place."

_*_


	60. If We Are to Stay Alive

A/N: I don't own them; I just transmute them. Yeah, the other major song that you hear by Paula Cole on the radio fairly often: "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" It applies. And for my cell theory geeks out there, all hail Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden! Between the references, that ought to give you a rough idea as to time setting.

* * *

I'm not sure exactly when I drifted off, but I certainly knew what had reawakened me. The low rumble of Kiba's growl seemed to fill the whole tunnel, snapping me back to full alertness. Crawling towards the entrance, I attempted to peek around the dirty white wolf to see what had aroused his anger without touching him. Kiba looked more than ready to take off any stray hands that might interrupt his inevitable spring at his unseen target.

"You know how the nobles came to power, I trust." That voice… Strong, cultured, feminine, commanding, and the sort of tone that took absolutely no prisoners. It was not the sort of voice you traditionally wanted to growl at within hearing distance.

"So much is lost from that time, but everyone knows that your families perfected the use of sunstones after the gate accident. The most famous example, of course, is when the early alchemists used them to reform the moon, and from there… It's been a source of inspiration for my own research." Was that Dr. Lebowski? I rubbed the sleep from my eyes with grubby fingers, daring to push Kiba to one side in surprise. What on earth would she be doing here?

Tsume had not been able to ignore the rising snarl, either. The leather-clad man tackled the bristling white wolf, throwing one arm across Kiba's throat and wrapping the other hand firmly around his muzzle. "Shut up," he hissed at the shorter predator. "I don't like her much either, but you'd only get yourself killed." The yellow-eyed man slowly released Kiba's jaw, as if testing him to see whether or not Kiba would listen to reason. "You two stay here. I'll find a way to get us in without them seeing us."

"Don't you dare hurt Dr. Lebowski," I warned him. "She's Hige's boss and an old friend of the family."

He waved me off, slipping around us and out of the cave. "Don't worry so much, Blue. What's the worst I would do to _her_?" I really didn't want to know the answer to that question.

"Her." Kiba was almost wordless in his fury, but the pale wolf attempted to calm himself once Tsume and I held him down. "Of all the reincarnated souls, why did it have to be her?"

"You've got a problem with Dr. Lebowski?" I asked. The white wolf shook me and the question off.

"Jaguara." There was more hate in that word than I might have thought possible. The noblewoman wasn't exactly known as a defender of wildlife and the common man, but I'd never expected someone to rage against such a powerful, dangerous leader so openly. Tsume might tease Hige and claim to be beyond the lady's influence, but the thin man's distaste was born out of an abstracted sense of superiority and a general railing against the thought of anyone claiming authority over him. Kiba's lip twisted as if he had a personal score to settle with her.

I brushed the dirt from my skirt and hands, creeping a little further out of the rough-hewn tunnel. Where had Tsume gotten to? He'd vanished awfully quickly into the brush and dirt, moving as silently as only a thieving wolf could. What was Dr. Lebowski doing so far from Freeze City and her work when she had always put her career above all else? What was the infamous noblewoman's angle in all this? Maybe I could get close enough to listen in without Kiba's rumbling snarl… I waved him back, setting off from the tunnel.

"From the earliest recorded uses of sunstones, they have always had to do with extending a lifetime. It's not simply freezing the body in animated suspension, it allows one to interact with the world as if one truly had more time in this world, more life than life itself could offer." God bless Cher Lebowski's ability to wax poetic about anything that stirred her interest. Under the gaze of Lady Jaguara, the doctor could go on all day if she had to. Hopefully, it would mean that Jaguara would be kept occupied and Tsume would be getting us into the greenhouse without anyone the wiser and no one harmed.

While I liked Dr. Lebowski and trusted her further than I did either wolf, I was not eager to attempt to explain what I was doing bruised, covered in dirt, and more than a little wild-eyed in an abandoned noble's garden in the company of two wanted criminals who happened to be wolves. Especially when I'd been abetting their plans to break and enter into this hothouse. Obviously it wasn't simply a pleasure dome, considering its heavy lock and solid construction.

Kneeling behind the brush, my knees sinking into the loose soil we'd torn through, I attempted to catch sight of them. "But the eternal question, of course, has always remained: where does this extra time come from? What about the exploded hyperspace gate affected the moon so greatly that its very dust might add to one's life? The alchemists who founded the noble houses may have discovered the answer, but they've kept it to themselves." Doctor Lebowski looked okay. She was making slightly nervous gestures with her hands, pacing just after the armor-clad noblewoman's heel. She was still in her lab gear: white coat, glasses, no-nonsense half-bun, although the last was beginning to fall out of its hold. She might not have come entirely because she wanted to, but I didn't think she'd been forced here, at least. She'd probably had a faster, easier trip, too, if Jaguara had brought them by airship.

The lady turned her head a fraction towards her follower, - and incidentally, a fraction towards me, - and Dr. Lebowski cut herself off as the sunlight reflecting off of Jaguara's metal mask and helmet changed its pattern. I froze, eyes darting for the wolves. We hadn't exactly hidden our handiwork, after all. Unless Jaguara's senses were better than mine, she wouldn't find Tsume until he came after her, and Kiba would be able to slip off nearly as quietly, if he wasn't frozen in anger. I wouldn't want to be Lady Jaguara if she found Kiba, even if she was wearing a spiked metal neck guard and a full breastplate that sensibly covered everything, though it was fitted to impress more than to prevent bruising to sensitive areas.

That, of course, left me to be found by her first if she chose to track down whoever had been trying to dig up her guarded garden. I might try to slip into the greenery, but I was no wily thief or wild animal. I might be a wolf by birth, but I wouldn't even know how to walk like one if I wanted to. Even my association with Dr. Lebowski was more likely to bring trouble down upon her than it was to rescue me from whatever consequences Jaguara might choose to inflict upon the three of us.

"Life comes from life. That has been basic knowledge for over eight hundred years. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool." The noblewoman's tone was clipped and confident; the voice of an alchemist, a military commander, a warrior, a dictator on her own accomplishments, a woman who had lived a very, very long time and had not wasted a moment of it. The original alchemists may have all died out, even with their extended lifespans, but Lady Jaguara was a throwback to their type in knowledge and ambition, and she seemed poised to do her grandparents one better and live forever. How, I had never cared to ask. Tsume's theories on that subject sounded too close to the truth.

"Naturally, my lady." Dr. Lebowski looked as if she would have liked to question her employer further, but was understandably reluctant to interrupt if Jaguara wanted to give her more pressing information.

"Before we came into power, the solar system was in chaos. The people of earth fled their home world, so concerned with spreading life to the other planets that they forgot how much life they stole from their birth lands. They forgot to return what they owed, until the moon exploded. That, I am convinced, was no 'accident.' It was the earth reclaiming the lives it needed to renew itself; the closing of the door between those who would respect this planet and those who would not. What my ancestors did was a mere formality." Funny she should say that, since half of the alchemists that had come here had done so after the wreckage of the hyperspace-poisoned old moon had started to fall to the earth. Those fallen sunstones had been the source of attraction for them, after all.

I thought I saw a bush waver behind the two women as Jaguara removed a heavy key ring to unlock the domed greenhouse. "The earth needs life to continue in time. Otherwise, it would be as dead as Mercury, as lost and hopeless in its orbit as Pluto without the lives that observe it and mark its passage through time. It is a duty that all who would live here must observe. But just as the earth sacrificed her moon to remind us of that duty, there was something removed from me so that I might learn the secrets contained within the sunstones. I cannot even remember what I lost, Degre-Lebowski, and yet I can feel its absence. I have known myself to be incomplete since birth, as if I were Pluto missing her Charon, the warrior Mars without Fear or Panic. Perhaps it has straightened my course, but I have been thrown from the proper path. At one point, we were able to restore the moon with the most lifeless of its scions. Through you and your kind, I believe we may yet do the impossible and regain not only a lost life, but a certain soul that has already made the ultimate sacrifice to continuing the earth."

Dr. Lebowski hesitated in the doorway. "What would you ask of me, my lady?" She had every right to sound unnerved.

"Do your duty, Dergre-Lebowski. Observe." Jaguara's eyes flicked to the bush moving against the wind, and the alchemist raised her palm.

*


	61. Oh No, Not Me, I Never Lost Control

A/N: Blues is now officially a year old! Here's to another year, unless the story wraps up before that. ;) Although the current update schedule has averaged out very nicely to one every six days, my buffer is gone, save for random scenes that I couldn't resist writing, so future chapters may be a little slower. We'll see how it goes.

Even if somebody wanted to sell me the rights to this world, I probably couldn't afford it. I'd love to claim I came up with the background, but I give you exhibit A: Fullmetal Alchemist, progentor of Equivalent Exchange (and a man from the desert on a mission called Scar, which surely has nothing to do with Tsume Suna, plus a blonde general that you_ do not trifle with... _unless you're a housewife) and exhibit B: Cowboy Bebop, home of sunstones from the exploded moon (oh, and a gang leader called Vicious for a good reason, plus a blonde voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGann). All I add is the tinfoil to tie them together, as is displayed in "Sitting in Muddy Water."

I'm no master of the Japanese language, but Madoka's name is a tribute to one of my friend's RPG characters, also known as Toshio or just as the weapon-crazy mad scientist. It means "tranquil," apparently.

* * *

"No," Cole said as soon as the pair had entered her clinic doorway, her yellow eyes wide with worry as she tried to halt them. "You two can't be coming back here. My brothers would kill you."

Hige pulled awkwardly at the door; the she-wolf was stronger than she looked. "We need information, the sort that can't exactly be traded through the doorway," he told her, abandoning his efforts to counter her weight against the glass and metal doorframe.

"Tsume left without us," Toboe informed her shortly. "I - we need to find him, and my sister. Blue's out there somewhere on the road to paradise, whether she's ready to go or not."

The she-wolf released the handle as she straightened upon hearing this news. "He wouldn't," she murmured disbelievingly, glancing between the two males standing outside the door. Neither blinked, though Hige shook his head softly in response. Cole sighed, dropping her gaze at the same time as her grip on the door. "He would," she admitted grudgingly.

That was good enough as an invitation to Hige. There was nothing about the clinic that immediately indicated the sudden change in the pack's hierarchy; the only thing missing from their first encounter was Zali lounging about the waiting room. Instead of awaiting one of his pack-mates' recovery, the older gray wolf was holed up in one of the recovery rooms himself, unable to come out and risk a second encounter with the underlings that had plotted his downfall.

Like the first time the brown-eyed young men had stepped through the entryway, however, Cole looked frazzled, her energies burned away with the effort of holding her pack together. She didn't even acknowledge their entrance, merely shuffling back behind the reception desk to sit down and try to prevent the fearful, exhausted tremor in her arms. "He'll be heading south, especially if the white wolf is with him. The runt acts like a puppy around that boy," Cole murmured, dropping her eyes to a stray pen that rolled across the desk as she rested her weight heavily against its scratched, cheaply laminated surface. She didn't seem to notice Toboe until the small redhead stepped up to her side, picked the fallen writing utensil from the floor and returned it to the desk.

"He's outgrown the nickname, I know," she added to cover Toboe's heavy silence, raising shadowed golden eyes in a tired smile despite herself. Hige crossed his arms, leaning against the wall as he watched them. "But I fear that Tsume's still too much a son of this pack. They think they can solve everything through violence, that charisma is enough of a substitute for a long-term plan. It can be charming, I'll grant you, but no wolf can run and fight like that forever." Cole straightened and raised her chin from her hand, eyes focused on something beyond the redhead, her mouth flattening into something expressionless. She attempted a guarded smile of welcome, but the violet-haired she-wolf's eyes held enough poison that it hardly took a graduate degree to recognize the danger it masked.

Hige turned to see what had caught the pregnant woman's ire, only to feel something clamp harshly down on his neck. It was sharp, hot, and uncomfortably damp. He thought he heard something snap, then there was a shout from Toboe and the next sound Hige heard was his own body making impact with the floor.

"Wormwood! You should know better than to assault anyone who comes in here, especially a youngster who's only looking for help!" The wounded brunet in question heard Cole stand from behind her desk, but found it difficult to do the same. He felt lightheaded, and his arms and legs weren't responding properly. Hige could feel the stickiness of fresh blood oozing down the back of his hairline. What had the wolf broken in his neck? Even his vision seemed distorted. Hige blinked, trying to banish the brownish blur from the parallax of sight.

"Moss is in charge now, Cole, and Moss says to take out the trash." Another muzzle, this one closer to the color of old straw, thrust itself into the haze of Hige's vision, smirking as the young man attempted to get his feet back under himself. "These two ain't Tsume, but they'll make for a fun preview."

Toboe was worryingly silent, Hige noted.

"Leave them alone," Cole's voice cut sharply into the hunting male's deadly "fun." "For all you know, you could have just thrown away your last source of help. They're looking for Tsume, too."

"I got Moss. Got you. That's more'n enough," Wormwood said, circling Hige, waiting for the brunet to struggle to all fours. The brown-eyed man could feel the hair stand on the back of his neck. The wolf was playing with him, but as long as he and Cole could buy Toboe some time… "We don't need anymore strangers messing with our blood."

"Are you quite so sure?" There was the click of nails and the soft jingle of bracelets as Cole took on her wolf form, pushing Toboe behind her. "Go find my mate. Bring him here, please," she directed, her voice still soft and deadly polite. "I don't remember anyone challenging my status."

Wormwood dismissed Hige's clumsy attempts to come after him, as much as the wolf ignored the young man's helpless snarl, turning his back on Hige to face his sister. "'Course not. You're the only girl from our litter, you're the healer, you're carrying the pups, you're the alpha female. And I know you prefer blonds." There was something about the straw-colored wolf's cocky tone that sent a shiver of unease down Hige's back.

"You go too far, Wormwood. Not even Moss could come up with an excuse for something so twisted." Cole had dropped her illusion. Beneath, her hackles stood on end and her ears stood warningly erect above her proudly-carried head.

The tan wolf didn't snarl, but despite how much smaller she was than Zali, Cole didn't have to. The she-wolf was something much more important than a warrior amongst the pack of half-civilized wolves: she was their only trusted healer, and a pack member hurt or betrayed her at his own peril.

Hige could only hope that Blue would be able to show the same strength if a man like Wormwood ever confronted her. Sure, Blue could kick ass and he loved her for it, but Cole didn't even blink as her lighter-colored, larger brother stepped menacingly toward her, challenging her right to make her own normal life instead of following along as the subordinate "alpha" female to her treacherous brothers' insular, possibly even incestuous pack. Tsume was right, Hige decided: this woman did have the capacity to be a complete and utter bitch, and god help him if he didn't find it admirable.

If only he could actually_ help_…

Toboe had left to find Zali. That was good, at least. Hige didn't know what Wormwood had damaged in his neck that the brown-eyed young man couldn't bring himself to stand on two legs, but better that Toboe had even the uncertain safety net of the injured tall gray than risk getting in this openly hostile and cavalierly violent wolf's way.

Although he was still dragging himself along on the balls of his hands and feet, Hige was starting to make quicker progress now. Lurching into a stumbling run, he launched himself at the larger wolf, swiping clawed limbs at Wormwood, only to lose his grip as soon as he made contact. _Damnit!_

"If it's what it takes to make you see your duty to the pack." The lazy-eyed wolf barely turned, snapping at Hige as if he were a particularly annoying fly.

"If that's the way you wanna play," Hige snarled, rising back to all fours much more quickly this time, at least. "We'll have to see who's the garbage around here, won't we?" This time, Hige sank his teeth into Wormwood's flesh, the dry, oily taste of the wolf's fur quickly superseded with the salty tang of blood. _Whatever works_, Hige thought grimly, clamping his jaws down harder.

"Damn pup! Cole, get this thing off me!" Wormwood shook and twisted, getting in a bite of his own, but even that pain wasn't enough to make Hige release.

The tan she-wolf made no move to break up their fight. Although much of the brown-eyed man's vision was obscured by fur, he could have almost have sworn that she was smiling, however faintly on that animalistic face. "Are you so quick to remove all who might have helped you, Wormwood?"

"This is hardly helping!" Wormwood growled through his grip.

Hige clamped harder, shaking the wound wider. "You didn't do much to earn it, you know." He was surprised how clearly the words came out, how naturally his teeth raked through fur and flesh. They weren't as sharp as a wolf's, after all…

"Never learned how to deal in a good one-to-one fight, did you?" Toboe had returned, and the wolf following him was smiling beneath the stitches on his face, standing side by side with his mate. "If you and Moss think you can lead this pack, you're going to have to deal with more than one challenger at a time, even without your brother to back you up."

"We should've killed you both," Wormword snarled, dropping his grip on Hige to fly in a rage at the big charcoal gray, still dragging Hige from his shoulder.

"No." Cole thrust herself between them, and her brother jerked his head back, not yet mad enough to go through the pregnant female. "I've already lost one brother. I won't see any of my other family members killed. If that means Zali and I have to leave this pack to accomplish that, so be it."

The tan wolf reached for Hige, gently bringing one of his forelimbs into his field of vision. It was covered in fur. "You can let him go, Hige." She shifted back into her human illusion, still crouching next to him, and waited for Hige to remember to breathe, to remember that that couldn't be his hand; his hand looked more like… that. Cole gave a faint smile of approval, but it was still too real to dismiss the paw he had seen moments before.

"You know where the gauze and bandages are," Cole told her brother, standing from Hige's side. That wound on the blond's flank… that was not from human teeth. "Get a compress on that, and while I don't know what you and Moss are doing, please be careful. Without an alpha, you'll have to look after yourselves." While she did not touch the older wounded fighter, the anger and disgust present in her lupine features the last time she had looked at her brother had been replaced with resigned pity - though not completely. She was not going to allow Wormwood another change of heart.

"Moss is alpha, now." Wormwood told her, trying to lick his wounds without appearing to cower before Zali or Hige. It felt odd, thinking that the wolf would be trying to hide fear from him. Hige's hands were still shaking.

"So he is. But the pack is broken now, Wormwood. Up to you two to see if you can heal it. Go tell the boys. It's one thing you're good at." Zali stared the straw-colored wolf down, narrowing his yellow eyes until Wormwood turned and fled, tail tucked between his legs.

"Hige?" Toboe asked, sounding faintly shell-shocked. "You okay?"

Spitting fur from human lips, the older man nodded. "I just need a minute to think, runt. Maybe make some calls. Don't tell your pops?" Toboe patted his shoulder, nodding in relief.

"You can use the treatment room in the back for now, but I wouldn't linger," Zali told him. "Once we leave, Moss'll be looking for any other scapegoat he can get his hands on."

"But where will you go?" Toboe asked, turning still-worried eyes upon the mated pair of wolves. At least while he was caught up in fretting about the others, Toboe had broken his own brooding silence.

Cole and Zali traded glances, a spark of mischief in their eyes beneath all their worries. "What do you say, sweetheart? Ready to run for paradise?"

"Well, actually… Before we met, I kind of ran off on my pack, including my mother and my elder brother. I think I may owe them an apology." For just a moment, Zali's eyes met Toboe's.

"If you remember the way back to them, we'll stop by there first," Cole told him, pulling out the keys to the clinic.

"And I think I may know the perfect way for you to get there," Toboe said, eyeing the red motorcycle that was still parked in front of the building.

"Do what you have to, Hige, but remember that the door will be locked behind you," Cole said.

Hige opened the door to the back hallway, giving her a brief wave. "Thanks."

Once he'd ensconced himself in an empty exam room and shut the door, the brown-haired man pulled the cell phone from his pocket, turning it absently through his hands. It had come from work, since Doctor D trusted him with "important company matters." This basically amounted to knowing what brand of coffee to pick up when the lab supply ran out, but it was the principle of the thing. Cher Degre-Lebowski knew him well enough to trust him, to earn his respect, to advise him when things went wrong, but this... this was too much to even ask his mentor about. The number Hige punched in at last was familiar, but it was one he had learned long before meeting the blonde scientist.

"Wolfe residence, Madoka speaking."

_Why did his voice have to sound so_ normal_? _Hige wondered, swallowing back his complaints and questions for the moment. "Hey Dad."

"Hige! Is everything all right? You haven't called in a while; your mother's getting worried, you know. I try to tell her that you'd tell us if something happened, of course, but you know what she's like." The elder Wolfe didn't intentionally try to guilt his son into checking in with his parents, but his wife was a master of the art.

"Yeah, I'm still her baby, after all," The joke felt flat on Hige's tongue. Some "baby" he was… "Everything's fine, Dad, except that I just went through a hell of a way to figure out that I was adopted." Cradling the receiver against his shoulder, the brown-eyed young male attempted to focus on the hands in front of him. Paws. Hands. Paws. Hands. Hands. Hige thought he was beginning to get the hang of this, even if it made him feel sick and dizzy without even thinking about what had to be going on internally to fuel this change. Creating and dropping the illusion was a sick pleasure, but he still couldn't stop himself from toying with it behind the shelter of closed doors.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and Hige doubted that it was merely because he had dropped the thing. "What makes you think that you're adopted?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that I can turn into a_ wolf_? You know, as often as Mom likes to embarrass me every birthday with the story you guys fed me about the emergency hospital trip when I was born, you'd think that when I brought home my girlfriend and her adopted family might have been a decent time to warn me that I wasn't exactly your kid by birth, either…" Hige knew he was being unfair, not letting his soft-spoken father get a word in edgewise, but the catharsis of sarcasm was too heady to stop just yet.

"You always say that you guys have nothing to talk about with Sergeant Yaiden, but at least he let Blue and Toboe know what was going on -"

"Hige… son, look, please don't tell your mother about this, because the trip to the hospital is completely true from her point of view," Madoka Wolfe cut in at last with a heavy sigh. "I… I didn't think things through. I've done that a lot of times, but I never wanted it to hurt her, or you. When she gave birth, the baby - your brother, your previous incarnation, - call him what you like, but he didn't live long. I was already at the hospital, and I panicked, and then, there you were, like you were meant for us. We've done the best we could for you, Hige. We have been good to you, haven't we?" His father sounded almost desperate for approval.

Screw it. Madoka had had twenty-five years to present this topic, if he was that worried about how Hige would react. He could wait another twenty minutes to give the full explanation. Hige had enough to worry about at the moment. "So my original family got left with a changeling, then, like my life was some twisted kind of fairy tale."

"That's the thing, son; there was no sign of the original family. It was a pretty cheap hospital; they did a lot of charity cases and foster care work. We couldn't have afforded anything else. It probably worked out for the best for everyone involved."

"Yeah." Hige swallowed and concentrated on the form he'd known all his life. Why was it so hard to hang onto? He slid down against the wall. "Yeah, you're probably right." Even with his human form firmly in place, his grip on the phone was shaky. "But Dad?"

"Yes, Hige?"

"Why'd you risk yourself and Mom with a wolf in the household? How would you have dealt with it if I'd lost my grip earlier?" It was hard enough just considering what had happened, without thinking about what could have happened, what might still happen… None of the wolves Hige had known were exactly the family type.

"Well, you know your mother's nose," his father joked feebly. "You think I could have passed a human child off as our own?"

"Wait… what?" Wolves were like Kiba and Tsume and Zali: dangerous and charismatic and definitely not Hige's decidedly non-badass middle-aged parents. Wolves did not scrape together money to send their son college care packages with cookies and reminders to study for board exams. Wolves did not stop by his apartment and help him move his stuff in even while playing twenty questions about his job. Wolves never told embarrassing stories about his childhood to his girlfriend, for god's sake!

"Your Blue is a nice girl, but I wish you could have seen your mother as a wolf in her prime." Madoka's tone turned wistful. "She was the best hunter I've ever known, and really gorgeous, too…"

Hige cut his father off, not sure he wanted to hear the rest of this train of thought, even if it was the truth. "You're shitting me."

The elder Wolfe was unmoved by Hige's unthinking curse. "I may be a liar on occasion, son, but I'm not that creative. You were the same color as her as a pup. Someday, I'd like to see if you still are."

"Yeah." Hige smiled, running a hand over his closed eyes. "I think we're gonna have a lot to talk about the next time I come home."

*


	62. Are You What You Are or What?

A/N: I don't own them. Now, I don't ever want my stories to turn into pure author tracts, but I hope that I have managed to include at least a few Warg-approved morals in this story. For instance, proper gun control means using two hands and not aiming at anyone you don't want to shoot. People ought to be treated with the respect they deserve regardless of race, religion, gender, or orientation, but intentional idiocy and cruelty do affect how much respect one deserves regardless of all of the above. Science geekery is love. And of course, adoptive parents may not provide the genes, but like Blue, Hige, and Toboe here, I'd never say that the good ones are any less "real parents" than those that raise their own biological kids.* And now you know. And knowing is half the battle. (And now Warg has totally dated herself... but old school G.I. Joe and He-Man were fun, anyway.)

(*Well, as to the main four wolves' birth parents... Reincarnation makes for a funny story, that...)

* * *

I could only stare helplessly as the gray wolf leapt at Lady Jaguara, only to be… stopped. It happened so quickly that I know of no other way to describe it. One minute, there was nothing visible of Tsume but the movement of the brush. The next, he was in the air, fangs gaping, giant, heavy paws outstretched, muddied tail proud and rudder-like behind him, and utterly… _still_. The snarl was silenced almost before it emerged from his throat. His breath came hard and slowly, only under visibly conscious effort. I couldn't even see his eyes twitch.

Dr. Lebowski gasped at the frozen, gravity-defying surprise attacker, supported in the air only by the circle of light that flickered from Jaguara's palm. The noblewoman smirked slightly beneath her half-mask, her eyes studying Tsume even as she reached out her other hand as if to stop Kiba, as well.

"You have seen these before, Degre-Lebowski," she said mildly, pulling both wolves stately and unwillingly towards the two women with a practiced motion of her hands. Kiba's claws dug furrows in the ground, throwing every ounce of his iron willpower into resisting the ennobled alchemist. It still wasn't enough to stop her. "Perhaps not these two in particular, but I believe you are very familiar with this species, are you not?"

"Wolves," Dr. Lebowski breathed unbelievingly, taking a step towards Tsume as if he were a figment of light, himself. "I've read the legends, studied the oldest records I could find, but I've never seen one alive…" She cut herself off, beaming widely and uncontrollably as she turned to gaze at Kiba, as well. He was somewhat less enthusiastic. "Two of them, here in the flesh," she murmured.

"What, then, have you done with _my_ wolf?" Jaguara's voice turned accusing and dangerous.

"Your wolf, my lady?" Cher Lebowski repeated helplessly. "Forgive me, but I don't know what you're talking about. I never had the chance to see a wolf before today." Despite the hatred in Kiba's eyes and the mistrust in Jaguara's, the head of Project Moonflower could not help but look over my onetime travel partners with equal parts stunned delight and hunger for further knowledge.

"Not so fun, is it, when somebody's dragging you along?" I muttered to myself. Even so, I didn't want Tsume and Kiba caught up in the middle of Jaguara's wrath. Even dragging me out here didn't merit such a harsh punishment.

Although Dr. Lebowski seemed only half-aware of the trouble she herself might be in, so in awe was she at the sight of the stilled wolves, I could not think of anything she might have done to deserve the noblewoman's anger, either. "Are these two not yours?"

Not if I could help it. But how could I get all four of us away from her?

"They are now." Jaguara gave Tsume and Kiba a brief, more dangerous smile of her own before turning violet eyes back on Dr. Lebowski. With a casual adjustment of her wrist, the lady alchemist lowered Tsume down next to Kiba, relaxing her otherworldly grip upon him enough that the lankier wolf could gulp down deeper gasps of air, blinking as his eyes turned to Kiba. The white wolf never took his golden glare from the two human women. Jaguara didn't dare release him. "They are not yet up to my standards, however, as the one you hid from me was."

That had to be it. Four of us, and Jaguara with only two hands… I pulled my switchblade loose, jacking it open in a long-practiced motion. I swallowed, trying to tell myself not to think, just do - this was the right path; there was no time to try to reason or distract - only a drawn blade and fast paws would get us out safe…

No. That was Kiba's way of thinking. I couldn't let it become mine. I closed my blade, though I kept it close to hand. I had to give Dr. Lebowski a chance to talk us out of this. I had to examine my territory more, look for Jaguara's weaknesses, and wait for a moment when she wasn't paying attention. That was the only way that all of us would make it out, and I'd earn no one a moment of freedom by openly assaulting a noblewoman unprovoked and without a plan. If I couldn't get Kiba and Tsume out of the mess they'd created for themselves by legal means, I could at least try contacting Neige before I made the situation worse by acting like a wolf.

"My lady, I swear to you that I don't know what you're talking about." Cher Lebowski at last pulled her eyes away from the restrained pair. Just because she'd given him breathing room didn't mean that Lady Jaguara would allow Tsume, let alone Kiba, to do so much as lift a paw. Unless she decided that she could put Cher between her and the white wolf and regain her restraints quickly enough to stop Kiba before he tore his way through the bemused scientist to his true target… Dr. Lebowski didn't look like she'd remember to get out of the wolf's way, even if the struggling beast came flying straight towards her.

"I have been tracking my wolves through Collars, Degre-Lebowski. You may not recognize them now, but perhaps under the right pressure…" The alchemist twisted her fingers, and Kiba and Tsume collapsed back in human shape.

Dr. Lebowski started forward, halting only when a combination of Kiba's growl from a human throat and her lady's clipped command pulled her back to her senses. "But… how? They're barely more than boys," the shorter woman murmured, withdrawing her hand back from where she'd outstretched it towards the wolves. She tilted her head at Tsume, adjusting her glasses before giving up and sticking them into her disheveled half-bun. "I've seen you somewhere before…" The captured gangster refrained from confirming her suspicions, if he even could. At this point, Tsume appeared to be more interested in just trying to move.

"We must study the sunstones to unlock their secrets," Lady Jaguara said. She'd seemed interested in Dr. Lebowski's half-recognition of my brother's boyfriend. Too interested for Tsume's own good, or even mine, most likely… "The wolves are born to those secrets, but those that do not study what they have within cannot control it. These forms are not permanent until I can place Collars within them, but they will suffice until you tell me what you have done with X-23. Everything must be in its rightful place at the right time, Degre-Lebowski. I will not have you rushing my experiments, but perhaps it is time to take the next step." The armored, masked noblewoman turned her eyes from her captives and her preoccupied scientist.

"V-45 has fulfilled the first of her roles quite nicely." No. She couldn't possibly mean me. Jaguara couldn't know that I was there. Trying to convince Tsume and Kiba to get their own Collars hadn't been such a wise decision after all, even if I should have known that neither of them would have listened anyway. "You will come along, now." She dropped her left hand for a second, letting the pale-skinned wolf struggle to his feet and run at her like a man possessed. By the time he reached her, she had drawn her sword, meeting his spring and knocking him out neatly with the flat of her blade. "I trust you will give me less trouble," she said warningly to Tsume. He glared at her, but when she dropped her other hand, he moved to where Cher Lebowski had scurried over to Kiba, tentatively reaching out to examine his injury.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, my lady?" Dr. Lebowski seemed afraid to even look the wolves in the eye, much less initiate a conversation with Tsume. She still sounded as dazed as I was beginning to feel.

"You idiot," Tsume muttered under his breath from Kiba's other side. I wasn't sure who the remark was intended for, but it certainly fit most of us right now. Dr. Lebowski looked up, eyes wide with surprise as if she'd hardly believed him capable of speech.

"Come along, Degre-Lebowski," was all the answer Lady Jaguara would give as she unlocked the greenhouse. "You too, V-45," she added as she lifted an insensate Kiba and cold-eyed Tsume.

I felt a pull from the back of my neck and a sudden stab of pain in my forehead. It was hardly necessary.

What else could I do? I followed Cher and Lady Jaguara into the dome.

*


	63. What's Going on?

A/N: I don't own them, as is pretty obvious from the way I let my muses practically escape me for a month. The good news, at least, is that part of an upcoming chapter is already done; I just realized halfway through writing what will become Chapter 65 that in order to tell you that story, first I needed to tell you this one... Ah, but that's what buffers are for, if I had any left...

* * *

Cher had stopped breathing for a moment when the third form rose from the brush. It was not alchemy that stilled her or brought the all-too-familiar form following docilely, if rather expressionlessly, after the two women and their captives, or at least not the same kind that Jaguara had displayed earlier. This one did not appear as a wolf, as the oddly familiar dark young man had.

Come to think of it, there was a touch of recognition in the back of the scientist's mind for the white wolf as well, but then Cher had never had a great memory for names and there were other things more pressing at the moment. Like this blank-faced specter from Freeze City…

"You insist you have not seen my wolves, then?" Jaguara smiled coldly as the scientist stared at the newest arrival. "V-45 will verify the truth of that soon enough. Does this woman know X-23, V-45?"

"_I_ don't even know X-23. How would she?" Bright blue eyes squinted against the sunlight reflecting off the armor, turning away from Cher and the two other wolves, though the addressed creature followed stiffly after them into the heart of the garden.

"Much more rational than the last," the noble murmured to herself, sounding more quietly pleased than she had since the gray wolf had tried to throw himself at them. "The technique is improving. Since you appear to know something about this one, then, I will leave him with you to clean up and interrogate," she added to Cher. The tallest of the three captured was moving on his own feet now, but Cher doubted that it was entirely under his own will. "Ask him what you will, Degre-Lebowski, but remember that he has not yet been properly indoctrinated." The look the yellow-eyed young man shot the taller alchemist was designed to kill, but unlike the noblewoman, the lean gray-furred wolf was limited to the range of his hands and teeth when it came to causing actual damage. Jaguara simply smirked below her mask. "The white wolf… I have plans for this one," she added slowly, turning the unconscious male in midair and once again lowering his human illusion to reveal the wolf beneath. Cher had never seen such a thing before. How could he look even more familiar that way? "You are of course familiar with _The Book of the Moon_…"

Cher nodded, her eyes flipping between the alien form of the insensate floating wolf and the one she had seen so often before coming face to face with revealed wolves, wolves that obviously didn't care to be examined. The book had been banned in many cities now, but the scientist had received a copy when she was a little girl, obsessed with nature and fairy tales and lost wonders of the ancient earth. She didn't mention that she still had her copy, sheathed in the battered jacket of _The Adventures_ _of Macintire and Appledelhi_ and stuffed in a locked drawer in the threadbare apartment she'd gotten since her separation. "You believe that these are… them?"

Cher had known that girl that her employer referred to merely as a letter and number; first vaguely as the daughter of her husband's friend, and then later as Hige's fiancée and a capable, quietly charming young woman in her own right. It was hard to think that Blue Yaiden might be a wolf, much less one of those chosen by the lily-white distiller of time… Speaking up might have earned the gray wolf some time, but Cher didn't want to give Jaguara any information about Blue than she had to, and she doubted that the noblewoman would grant her a private interview with more than one wolf.

"The eyes have it," was all Jaguara was willing to give her. "Paradise requires both blue and gold." The golden-eyed young male's face might have been set in stone, but his back stiffened further at this statement, if such a thing was possible. "Sit down." The chair Jaguara motioned the tall wolf man to was solidly built, and a trio of thin metallic straps closed automatically across his throat and wrists as she pushed him down. "Learn what you can from this wild one; perhaps your observations shall assist my own yet." The lady left Cher with the strange wolf in human form in a cool nook beneath the shade of the flowers, trailing the white wolf and the stoic-eyed creature that so resembled Blue after her.

The muddied white-blond shook himself as Jaguara retreated, growling and testing the limits of his restraints, his yellow eyes no longer focusing on anything within the dome. Cautiously, Cher reached a hand out to his ripped sleeve. "Who are you?" she asked, keeping her voice low. "How did you and Blue end up here?"

Golden irises snapped towards her. "Why the fuck would I tell you?"

"I'm not here to hurt anyone," Cher attempted to reassure him. "I want to get you and your friends out safe, if I can trust you."

The dark mouth twisted upwards in a mocking smirk. "Good luck with that, dog of the nobles."

Cher withdrew her hand, standing up straighter. "You know as well as I do that Blue doesn't act like that. I don't know what Lady Jaguara did to her, but it's not right. I know you have no reason to trust me, but you can't afford not to. Are you going to throw away any chance of help without even considering it?"

The dirty gray wolf in human form refused to let himself be outstared. "If you really want to help us, human, find the ones waiting for us at the gate. Jaguara's hounds will be after them next. Best that they get a little warning." He turned his eyes back to his restrained arms at last, trying to hide a rueful half-smile. They were still shaking. "Zali would appreciate it, at least."

"The gate?" Cher asked in confusion, but the wolf refused to clarify.

"I've told you too much. Even if Jaguara doesn't have a way to listen in directly, she'll have it out of you." Fisting his scraped hands, he pulled harder against the restraints.

Cher placed a hand upon his without thinking, reluctant to see this creature so odd and yet so human wound himself further. It felt like hairless, dusty flesh beneath her hand, warm but wet from a multitude of closing tiny wounds. "Not if I can get someone there first. I know you don't trust me or even necessarily Blue right now, but we can try to protect these friends of yours. Then I'll see what I can do about getting you out of here." She released him slowly, stepping back into the grove of white flowers in twining vines to make her call as the yellow-eyed young male slowly released his fist, though he continued to wriggle it incessantly against the square-edged metal.

The scientist's first call didn't go through, receiving nothing but Hige's voicemail. Although she had hoped to avoid this, that left Cher Degre-Lebowski with but one option.

She had barely glanced at the tangles of pale flowers staked throughout the dome or the irregularities that said flowers displayed as she dialled the dreaded number: here a thickened trunk, there fingerlike leaves... "Hubb?"


	64. I Deserve a Little More

A/N: If I were the Wolf's Rain Queen, you'd have been getting a clip show while I was working two jobs and creatively bankrupt instead of short stuff from other canons. Be thankful for that much. Many apologies, but that's RL economy for you. On the plus side, I think I've managed at least one upcoming chapter that Quent and the slash-squeamish will hate me for... ;) (Nothing too graphic, but the bangles should be coming off by Chapter 69.) Oh, wait, my Quent muse is already upset with me about something...

Thanks for sticking with it and reviewing!

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I'd been panicking quietly in the back of my mind; between the headache and the feeling like an invisible fist closed around my spine, it was impossible to think straight, to plan anything more complex than an outright attack, but I knew that could never end well. In the end I just shut down, spoke when I was questioned, and stared at the heavy press of white flowers without really ever even smelling them, much less seeing them. I felt caught between the bestial instinct and logical fears, paralyzed, useless. The best I could do was let my father's training take over, following Lady Jaguara in Pop's absence. It wasn't the wisest course, most likely, but it kept me moving. It kept the headache down. It was the easiest way to keep the two most dangerous beings in here in sight, at least, even if being in their presence alone was hazardous enough for my mental health.

The grip on my neck loosened as we came to our final destination within the concrete-floored maze of flora: a small anteroom separated from the rest of the greenhouse by movable walls and a surprisingly solid door. As long as I kept quiet, Jaguara more or less ignored my presence. I didn't doubt that she was still keeping an eye on me, making sure I followed, but for now, her focus was on the unconscious wolf she had floated to the long table within, in another corner of the greenhouse than where we'd left Tsume and Dr. Lebowski. I'd tried to make eye contact with them as we left, to see if they held any hope of getting out of here intact, if they blamed me for walking straight into Jaguara's hands instead of leaping at her when the end result would be the same, but there hadn't been much time before the tug at my neck steered me onwards in Jaguara's wake. They had more immediate concerns than trying to coordinate our escape plans right now, and soon enough, so did I. I could only hope that the other two would be safer as long as Jaguara didn't come back for them.

Kiba… wasn't so lucky. The noblewoman had pulled a long, wide leather strap from beneath the table. From one side of the strap, a plethora of hollow clear tubes jutted out, enough that it was a miracle that they remained untangled, trailing out into unknown receptacles. The other face of the strap was covered in perpendicular needles, each attached to one of the tubes. My eyes widened as I leaned slightly forward to get a better look. Blood lines. These were blood lines.

Jaguara gave the strap a light shake, sending the needles clinking against each other like an insect on glass. "A pretty coat, is it not, my pet?" she purred, turning violet eyes in my direction when she heard my sudden gasp. "Just one sting and nothing more when tightened around the abdomen. It saves me quite a bit of time while still allowing the maximum volume. I still have the option of jugular, femoral, and cephalic catheters, of course, but this alone will do for most wild-captured adults."

"No," I told her. I might not count Kiba among my friends, but that was too high a price to pay for entering an abandoned garden. "You can't do something like that." Fighting the tug on my spine, I stepped towards her, trying to get between the noblewoman and the unconscious wolf. I still had my switchblade, after all…

"I think you shall discover that I very well can, V-45." Her voice was perfectly calm as she laid the strap across Kiba's back, preparing to fasten it.

Drop_. Ka-click_. It was one fluid motion, continued in the same fashion that I'd done for years. She turned at the sound, but the movement taught me at least two things about Lady Jaguara: she wasn't using alchemy all the time, and she wasn't as fast as the wolves.

Her backhand sent me flying into a hapless row of staked flowering vines, a series of bloody lines rising down my arm from the needle-points, but there was a welling slash across her neck below the spiked guard, as well. I rolled to all fours as I landed, the switchblade still gripped tightly in my right hand. "He may not be human," I growled, panting as I rose back to my feet. "He may not be blameless." I was fighting for my very breath against the Collar's tug at my neck now, the noblewoman before me blurring and shifting as my vision wheeled. "But I will be damned if he deserves to die without an explanation."

She laughed at this, throwing her head back and ignoring my stumbling struggles completely. "An explanation to _whom_? This one will be dead either way. The gray? He is a wild animal; it won't matter to him if he knows why his alpha dies. Degre-Lebowski? As curious as she is, it is none of her concern. Neither is it yours, V-45."

"Blue," I corrected her in a stubborn gasp. If she was going to kill me - which I didn't doubt, - and she already knew my secrets - which she appeared to do so better than I did - better for her to call me by my true name.

"Sheila Blue Yaiden," she condescended, setting the bloodied needles aside. "Or is it Yaiden-Wolfe now? My apprentice may not talk much about her social life, but I have access to her records as well as Degre-Lebowski's." She was bluffing. She didn't know everything; Neige didn't even know everything. Jaguara was digging for information. Why else wasn't she pinning me as thoroughly as she had Tsume and Kiba? "I know what Degre-Lebowski has to say about your father, as well. Do you believe that he would give these wolves an explanation? Do you believe that he would grant _you_ one, if he knew what you were?"

"My father taught me about justice. I saw what he did when confronted with wolves." I rubbed at my throat, as if I could shake the alchemic Collar loose merely through sheer willpower. I didn't want to think about the long-term consequences of what might happen if I lost it. I had seen what Pops had done, all right. He and Tsume had never gotten along very well to start with, but… well, no wonder Toboe had always been Pop's favorite, even with the wild boyfriend. I'd done worse at the runt's age than fall for the wrong man, after all. Right now, I had to try to survive this and get back to Pops, Toboe, and Hige. I'd worry about their reactions later.

"If you wish an explanation still, I suppose I might grant you a part of one." Almost absently, Jaguara ran a glove across the welling line of blood below her neck guard. "I have been awaiting this wolf for a very long time, after all. I had high hopes for you, V-45. I might afford to grant you a little more fairness than the rest of the world shall when you have brought him to me."

She released the stranglehold upon my throat enough that I might breathe, dragging me like an unwieldy puppet next to Kiba to sit upon the table. Jaguara pried the knife out of my hand with cool gauntlets as she lifted me bodily, but simply let the blade drop unceremoniously to the floor, just barely out of range for me to toe it with a frantically kicking boot. I might be a breath faster than Lady Jaguara when she was unprepared for an attack, but she was far stronger. As long as she was armored, none of my wriggling half-blows seemed to have much effect upon her.

"In order to open paradise, one requires the scent of the flower to guide one to the tree, the blood of a wolf to open the pathway, and the sunstone to pay for passage. That is what all the children's folktales say, I am certain." Jaguara placed me next to Kiba, holding me squirming in my seat with one hand as she reached for the blood draining strap with the other. A light motion of her fingers was enough to bring it flying to her, the long needles tinkling against each other like cat bells as it flew through the air. We'd never belled our housecats precisely for their benefit, and right now, the sound left me feeling like a cornered, wounded sparrow facing Git in one of his more malevolent moods.

"I shall have the flowers shortly, thanks to Degre-Lebowski and her team. I have a renewable, docile source of the wolf's blood, thanks to my Collars. I have had the stones in my possession for a very long time. However, the folktales about paradise, like most stories of the genre, tend to leave out some strongly pertinent information about the true cost of renewing the world: achieving paradise requires the sacrifice of at least two souls. One might reshape the world as one sees fit if one opens paradise, but it is a world in which someone very dear to whomsoever chooses to open it will shortly cease to exist. The Tree of All Seeds cannot be created from nothing, and entropy will not allow that which brings rebirth to all other souls to be reborn. There must be a new tree from a new flower from another soul each time, and because of the close bond between the souls, when the old tree is destroyed, so is the one who shaped it." Jaguara was not trying to place the strap around Kiba again. She seemed to be taking her time in untangling the lines, heedless of my struggles.

I was tiring under the cool, solid pinch of the metal gauntlet augmented by the barely loosened otherworldly grip of the alchemic Collar, and the headache had returned. Unable to handle Jaguara on my own, I reached for Kiba, pulling blindly at the coarse white fur in an effort to shake him from his stupor. I felt some warmth in him still, movement that might have been the rise and fall of his chest, but my movements and voice were jerky, spastic, cut short by that metallic hand around my throat. Kiba did not rise.

My vision was going, though the scents of wolf, flower, and metal-armored human seemed to strengthen as my sight went dark. The last thing I felt was Kiba's fur beneath my fingers and the sudden pinch of a hundred needles beneath my skin. "I am tied to the tree by blood and soul, Blue Yaiden. I require wolf's blood to prolong its life, and mine along with it. This is why you and the other chosen wolves must die."

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	65. All My Troubles'll Hang on Your Trigger

A/N: Let me check again... Nope, I don't own it. I know Eifel-65's hit single would most definitely go in this chapter title if it weren't focused on cops and cowboys, but I have to admit: I really like this song, though. It really tied the whole chapter together. While we're certainly coming to the end of at least one story arc this chapter, I still have about ten more chapters prewritten or in the process thereof. Shame so few of them are from Blue's POV... You just have to have the right person for the time and place, and for her time, Blue was just the woman.

All Big Lebowski allusions aside, I'd like to do something special for all my reviewers, since we're coming up on eighty reviews now, even with my random hiatuses. (Hey, at least you get a long chapter out of it, this time.) So, for the next twenty reviews/ten chapters, I'll be taking song lyric suggestions. Know something perfect for Blue/Hige, Cheza's introduction, or just for the mood of a mostly 80s/90s rock-inspired Wolf's Rain fic? Include a song title and/or artist, and I'll see if I can work in lyrics with a shoutout for the suggestor. Extra points if you can put it with one of the lyrical themes repeated in some of the previously used songs. (Just as David Allan Coe's thoughts on country/western music, I believe there are certain topics that just fit with "Paradise Blues." One or two of them are even similar.)

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**Paradise Blues: Part III - The Sibling's Loss**

"Don't fret so much, old man," the wolf let his fingers brush over the gap in the backseat window. Even if the motor had worked properly, Quent knew that the thin pane of glass would prove poor protection, but as he was all but literally unarmed, Yaiden needed whatever few moments a barrier could provide him to come up with some way of finishing the wolf off before he himself was finished - or worse, Ethan decided that Wormwood needed help. "He won't kill your boys. Probably. Family means a lot to this pack. If you're not one of their own, you'd better damn well make yourself useful." The wolf shrugged. "Course, they expect their enemies feel the same way… along with whoever they choose to take in." Ethan smiled, revealing gleaming fangs. The old wolf didn't have to say anything to suggest to Quent that he knew several other ways to threaten a man besides endangering his children, as if leaving Toboe and Hige in there wasn't bad enough…

"Is there - _achoo! _- a problem here?" Quent recognized that sneeze. What it was doing this far south was another issue entirely, but he'd rarely been more relieved to hear it.

"Gesundheit," Ethan said, turning away from the car. "This fella seemed lost, so I came over to offer directions." The wolf's bearing was completely casual, as if he threatened former officers of the law in front of their currently employed brethren every day.

"Thanks; I think I can help get him where he needs to go," Hubb said, trying not to let his running nose and watering eyes throw off the image of a capable policeman too much as he approached. "Hey, Quent."

"Detective Lebowski." As if the wolf didn't know exactly what he was facing. The older human let his eyes dart once more around the parking lot, praying that his boy and his girl's man would walk out of the clinic unharmed any second now. The way his luck was running, he wasn't too surprised to spot another dark-haired wolf approaching the lot on foot. "They're here," the injured man warned Hubb in an undertone, dark eyes flickering quickly towards the figure lounging by the car and the other sauntering up from behind the cruiser.

The detective raised a light brown eyebrow at his friend, and Yaiden nodded. Lebowski leaned forward onto the balls of his feet, flicking green eyes a little less circumspectly and a bit more disbelievingly towards the old wolf in human form himself. "Have you heard of someone named Zali? Cher wanted me to pass on a message while I was heading down here, but I wasn't sure if I'd run into you, much less him." Hubb chose to play it down, for now. Although Quent thought he'd made it abundantly clear what he meant by "they," short of actually mentioning the dreaded species, all Hubb knew for certain was that these two were dangerous.

"Any message for Zali can be delivered to us," Moss informed the detective plainly, considering the all-terrain police cruiser with as much suspicion as Hubb offered him.

"And you would be…?" Hubb trailed off, his hand sliding towards his pocket. Quent doubted that the younger man was reaching for a handkerchief, no matter how much his nose might be running.

"His brother-in-law," Moss said, obviously less eager to make acquaintances with the detective than he had with Quent's daughter. "He's laid up right now."

Hubb glanced toward the battered old car, but Quent knew nothing about pack politics, and frankly didn't give much of a damn, as long as it didn't affect Toboe and Blue. All he could offer the detective was a quick shrug. "Sorry to hear that," Lebowski replied, relaxing enough to rock back to his heels. His green eyes flickered once more towards the older man in the car before he offered Moss an unthinking half-smile. "It seems like there's been a lot of injuries around here."

"Tell me about it," Moss said, positioning the detective between himself and Ethan, though not before shooting the older wolf a withering look of his own. "Makes you wonder why there hasn't been any sorta class-action suit against the train companies," he observed mildly, rolling out a blocky shoulder. "Great Spirit knows we could use the money."

Goddammit, Lebowski was warming up to this shyster, wasn't he? Hubb couldn't pass Quent's bandaged arms off as phantoms of the drink and a healthy dose of paranoia, but he had no idea what he was dealing with. "There're plenty of reports of trouble at those stations, many of them having to do with canine violence, intimidation, missing persons, and most recently, open gang activity. Freeze City's been trying to clean up its streets. Perhaps you gentlemen and your brother-in-law could come down to the local precinct and help us clean up here, too." There was still something of a smile in Lebowski's eyes, but it was a hard thing, cool and brittle. Hubb might be a lot more optimistic than Quent and a little more naïve, (certainly much less prone to solving this sort of thing with a gun and no more backup than a wounded bounty hunter,) but the man wasn't an idiot. Even as Moss and Ethan sized him up suspiciously, Yaiden let out a sigh of relief.

"You've got questions we can't answer right now?" Moss motioned to Ethan, drawing the elder wolf from beside the car so that they might close in upon their more lively prey.

"Don't go getting any clever ideas, old man," the wolf growled softly as he left at his pack leader's silent command.

He didn't have to worry. Quent knew trying to scrounge for his guns with a broken arm and a blocked shot on the ringleader was a pretty damn stupid idea. He hadn't let that stop him before.

"I'd prefer to do this by the book," Lebowski admitted, "with recorded individual sessions. Cher's message isn't the only one I have to pass on to Zali. There's reason to believe that you've been harboring a wanted criminal."

"_We _haven't been harboring anyone. My sister's clients are her own business." Moss's eyes hardened, and he signaled Ethan to move in on the detective. The older wolf sidled up to Lebowski, gripping his shoulder with a clawed hand. Quent swore he could see the wolf's teeth sink into Hubb's shoulder beneath the illusion.

"I suppose I'll need to talk with your sister as well," Lebowski added through gritted teeth, trying to hold back a sneeze as he resisted the bulkier-built wolf's push towards the clinic. "I'd really appreciate it if you'd let go right now."

"If you got a reason he should, we're listening," Moss told him. "But it might be just as well to settle this in the office," he recommended, pointing a thumb towards the clinic. Quent could swear that he heard growling from inside, followed by the thump of a body hitting a hard surface.

There was the click of a safety. Hubb's hand had still been in the voluminous pocket of his trenchcoat, and just because he didn't openly carry a sidearm at his waist didn't mean that the green-eyed detective would walk into enemy territory completely unarmed. "I think he might have a reason, Moss," Ethan deadpanned, stepping slightly backwards to avoid the stun gun being pressed into his side even as he tightened his grip on the detective's shoulder.

"If that ain't enough, I've got another one," Slowly, carefully, Quent had slid over the middle armrest, gritting his teeth and reaching for the rifle Toboe had left in the passenger floorboard. He'd gotten himself a good bang to his broken arm for his trouble, but let the wolf try to get around this one.

"Let's keep this non-lethal, Quent," Hubb said, trying to reassure his elder friend (and probably himself as well) that he had the situation under control. "Why don't we take this to the station where the officers of your local noble can act as neutral moderators?"

Moss just laughed at this. "You just don't have any idea what's going on, do you?"

"Do _you _know what you two are doing here? I'm willing to overlook obstruction of justice and you threatening a detective as long as we can solve this peacefully. My reasons for coming here don't necessarily include making your lives miserable." Although Hubb was still smiling faintly, it had taken on an edge that Quent had become familiar with from long experience on the receiving end: Lebowski was fast reaching the edge of his patience. "I need to know why Cher was passing on a wanted criminal's warning to your brother-in-law, why she wouldn't disclose Tsume's location, and why that message effectively boiled down to 'you're next.'"

Ethan stepped further away, and the wolves began to circle. "So that's what the runt's playing at, is it?"

Quent adjusted the rifle cradled against his shoulder and opened the car door. This was worth whatever risk approaching the wolves might present; for once, Moss's purposes were perfectly aligned with Yaiden's. "She didn't say anything about Blue, did she?"

Hubb shook his head, using it the motion to track the circling wolves as he brought the stunner out of his pocket. "Why do you ask, Quent?"

"The last time any of us saw Blue, she was thrown over that wolf's shoulder, headed who knows where," Quent spat.

"There is some justice in the world after all," Ethan muttered under his breath.

Lebowski dropped the stun gun to his side, green eyes snapping to focus upon his elder friend. "Quent… I -" The detective still didn't believe him. Hubb just never could wrap his mind around such things; Cher had always been the dreamer of the pair. Hubb preferred to put all his faith into that fleeting reality that was love. "Cher said not to follow her," the younger man admitted quietly. "Is Toboe okay?"

"Oh, we're taking care of the boy," Moss said before Yaiden could respond. The glare Quent shot him in return was designed to kill whatever survived its accompanying snarl rising from the father's chest. "Too bad about your girls, but I don't think we need to worry about my sister. We know how to handle Tsume here. I suppose, in return for certain favors, we can make sure the bad little wolf doesn't get your son, either. We just have to wait until the traitor takes the bait, and then I finish what my father started and rip his heart out." The twisting hand Moss shot out in example carved out a block of air entirely too close to Lebowski for comfort. Quent stepped forward from his position at the detective's side, gun in hand, and the wolves widened their circle.

"From what Cher said, it wasn't Tsume coming for Zali, though," Hubb said slowly, as if he were no longer sure what to believe. "She sounded almost sorry for him, really."

"She should be," the elder wolf put in, and for once, Quent found himself agreeing.

"What could the runt possibly warn us about?" Moss asked. The dark-haired wolf in human form slowed, though a malicious humor still lurked in those shifting yellow eyes. "It's hard enough to believe he'd be so cocky as to threaten us with his own return."

"All the more reason to talk to the local police, then. Cher was concerned about who else had gotten involved in the Suna case." Hubb wasn't going to be deterred or distracted from doing this right, even if Quent worried that his quarry would prove less than cooperative.

It was then that the last of Moss's cabal came out of the clinic, and this time, there would be no mistaking exactly what he was. The big, bluff, blond wolf came limping out, favoring his left side, particularly around his hastily bandaged, still-bleeding shoulder. Although the wound was nothing deep, from what little Quent could tell, the older man couldn't help but take a little pleasure in the sight of Wormwood's blood and saliva-matted fur.

The other three males were somewhat less sanguine about the freely appearing wolf. Moss cut off the injured and distressed canine's words before Wormwood could get out more than an angered "Zal-" but it was too late to avoid capturing the Freeze City detective's attention.

"Quent," Lebowski spoke hollowly to the man standing at his side, rifle at the ready. "Is that..?" He couldn't bring himself to finish the question.

"Yep," Yaiden responded, trying to keep the satisfaction out of his voice. That could be saved until Blue was back with them, standing at her father's other side, Toboe safe behind them. "Same as these two."

"How?" Hubb rubbed at his eyes, as if the wolves might be tricks of his overactive immune system.

Quent shrugged expansively. "Illusions. Dunno anymore than that, Hubb."

The three wolves did not bother to deny their native species, for Wormwood was not out alone for very long. The tall wolf whose name he had used as a curse emerged from the clinic soon after, Toboe striding determinedly out before him and Cole just behind, turning the key in the door behind her. Of Hige, Quent saw no sign.

At the sight, Moss and his cronies scattered. They had beaten back their fallen pack leader before, but Wormwood was too rattled and Quent's finger too comfortable upon the trigger of his weapon for them to want to try another strike at the tall, scarred, tawny-haired man right now. Although Moss let out a snarl as he retreated, even the violet-brunet didn't stick around long enough for Hubb to bring his stunner back into play.

"Wolves," Lebowski spoke the word experimentally.

Zali raised an eyebrow. "What about us?" He'd moved to cover his wife from Lebowski and the elder Yaiden, although Quent's son allowed his uncharacteristic somberness to drop briefly as the redhead greeted his father and his unexpected companion. Hubb shook his head mutely, and Zali grudgingly allowed Cole to steer him after their teenage guide to the red, recently repaired motorcycle.

"Especially with Detective Lebowski here, I don't think it's worth the trouble for us to take it with us, anyway. You can drive it, right? I've got a key, and there're helmets in the saddlebags," Toboe suggested.

The giant wolf in rangy human form smiled, tousling the redhead's long hair much as he once had that of another pup. "I think we can manage. Tell the runt if he wants his bike back, he's gonna have to track us down on the road to paradise. We shouldn't be too far from where we started."

"Will do," Toboe said, carding the auburn strands more or less back into place.

Zali reached for the handlebars, but Cole had already swung herself experimentally into place, fiddling with the mirrors and adjusting her scarf to her satisfaction before she fully righted the bike, her husband's arms wrapped around her rounded middle with something less than complete disappointment in his spare features. "Toboe, if you do find Tsume again, I hope you two can give each other everything you deserve," she told him gently over the purr of the engine.

"A strong left hook wouldn't be a bad start," Zali suggested. "If you want to follow the rails, there's an old underground tunnel just south of the city that could cut several days off your travel time. It's abandoned and fallen into disrepair, but that just means that you don't need to worry about the poisons we faced." With a wave, the two of them left, heading northwards.

Hubb took a tentative sniff, finally clearing his allergen-stuffed nose. "That was Zali, wasn't it?"

Quent shrugged philosophically, lowering the gun. No hunter could catch them all. "He was planning on leaving anyway, and he may have given us a way to catch up with Blue, Cher, Tsume, and Kiba. Best we use it."

"There went the last chance at physical evidence in the Suna case we may get for a while," Lebowski sighed as he adjusted his fedora. "No to mention all trace of your wolves, Quent."

Toboe looked away from the last turn they'd watched the motorcycle take as Hige emerged from the locked clinic. "Well, maybe we still have something left of them," the boy murmured vaguely.


	66. By the Tone of My Voice

A/N: Check out this: I own nothing. When I say that I don't have a lot more written about Blue, it doesn't mean that I've not got a whole lot more to write. Fortunately, I finished the draft for Chapter 66 immediately after Chapter 65, so there's one less long wait for my readers and reviewers, even if the chapter is rather short in comparision to the last... Also, although the jump my not be for a couple of chapters yet, you may want to start scanning under "all ratings" for this fic in the future. "Blues" may yet earn an M rating.

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I'm the first one to admit I don't understand alchemy. Neige's tried to explain some of the philosophy of it, even tried to show me some of the rudimentary nuts and bolts, so to speak, but it all went right over my head. There are times when it seems like basic biochemistry or physics: breaking one thing down in order to create another. Other times, (and perhaps it's just Neige and her teacher,) it seems almost akin to a religion - "the study of souls," my friend once called it, and what might be done with them. Of all the sciences, alchemy is the hardest to grasp for the uninitiated, not quite requiring a mind as magical as its effects in order to study it. It's of little wonder that it was regarded as a pseudoscience many times over its ten-thousand-year history.

At this moment, it was hard to deny that whatever else it might be, it was definitely _real_. I couldn't see what was going on around me, but I could all but feel my blood drain into the lines, flowing down, down, around, and no longer parallel in their paths. I could not see the symbol as it filled with red; there was no earthly way for me to be able to trace the design, yet I still could probably give you a shaky drawing of the pentagram if I could ever make my hands steady enough to commit the impression to paper.

Even as my thoughts drained out with the blood, something began to flash beneath my eyelids: disconnected images of Hige, Pops, Bruce, Toboe, Kiba, people I never remembered meeting well enough to remember _now_ as the important bits of my life flashed before my eyes, mixing with snatches of music, of my father's voice as he spoke with Detective Lebowski over clinking glass bottles, of wolf howls, of the rustle of high grass in the wind, muddled with scents of flowers and Momma's cooking spices and gunpowder and blood… the blood that even now must surely be more within the tubes of Jaguara's array than my own body…

_Hello. _

Funny, I always thought Death or God or whatever confronted me at the gates to the afterlife would sound a bit more impressive. The most overwhelming trait I could use to describe the soft, girlish tone gently interrupting the swirl of impressions from my quickly extinguishing existence - or perhaps, from the last few existences; there seemed too much to have all happened in a mere twenty-four years - was, to put it mildly, mild. It was a sweet, pretty voice, certainly enough, and the jumbled mass of my collected memory suggested that it would be beautiful in song, but it was little more powerful than a downy feather pillow.

_Who are you?_

Fair enough. "I'm…" It should be easy enough, too, but "Blue Yaiden" seemed meaningless here, swirling with "Jaguara" and "Rebecca" and "Tia" and "Neige" and "Cher" and half a dozen other names, all of which evoked a stronger response in me than that of an adopted bounty hunter I'd known somewhere. It wasn't that I'd forgotten the life slipping away from me so quickly, far from it. But here, I might remember other lives, every one that I'd had under this name and others like it, with only the others' roles to anchor me to any particular chain of memory. They tangled here, for this was not the first life I'd known Cher Degre. This was not the first time I'd faced Jaguara. Then there was that last name, the one I'd only heard from Kiba and the scarred gray who ran at his side. At last, I knew who that name fit. "Cheza? Who am I? _What_ am I?"

_This one cannot decide that. You must choose for yourself._

That simple, huh? I could be Pop's girl again and not worry about the wolf within, because there'd _be_ no wolf within; I could choose whatever life and name I wanted because I'd be leaving it behind in the spilled blood snaking down beneath Jaguara's secret lab. And yet… yes, as past lives expanded over each other, muddying the lines between them, I began to pick out patterns in the fractal. I could live all my life as a human, or as a wild wolf, or as nothing more than a pet dog. I'd done it before.

There would be a cost. There was always a cost. As a human, I'd never know what strength I might possess, never see so much as a glimpse of the paradise Kiba would search for. As a dog, I was left mute, with no one left that I could communicate with. Pops tried - he and Bruce always tried, but a dog's means of communication are sharply limited. Then there was the life of a wolf… It would be peaceful, out in the wilds, surviving as a proud and independent creature, but I'd never know my Pops. I wasn't even sure I'd ever meet Hige or Toboe or Kiba if I spent my days as free as the chill winds that ruffled but never penetrated my fur.

_This one remembers a lifetime when you were not fully any of these, _Cheza suggested serenely.

"I… I don't really care either way," I told her, bits of incredulous laughter bubbling up as I realized that it was true: wolf or human or half-breed, it didn't matter. I was dying and it didn't matter to me what I might become in my next life. "As long as I can be with Hige and stay at Pop's side. That's where I belong, and that all that matters."

_Are you quite sure about this? You might make it to paradise more quickly without them. Kiba or Tsume could lead you home, too._

"You don't understand." No, this had not been the first lifetime I had known them. This was not the first time that I had sworn myself to them. "They are my home, my paradise. My family is what makes me who I am."

_It will hurt._

And this didn't? "I'm prepared to face the consequences."

_As you wish, Blue Yaiden._

With that, my blood began to flow backwards, defying gravity, osmosis, evaporation, and entropy under the force of some greater alchemy. With it retreated my conscious thoughts. The last thing I remembered of my first encounter with Cheza was that returning to life hurt like hell.


	67. The Damage is Done

A/N: If I owned them, I'd probably end up giving them a bad name. Thanks to Putercat for the song suggestions. (I do use them eventually, but you've seen my update schedule here, I'm afraid...) The bad news for slash fans is that other subplots are postponing what was going to be Chapter 69. The good news for them is that that particular scene is almost written. The good news for het fans is that there's another reason for the eventual M rating coming up before that comes to light. The good news for gen fans... I'll hush and let you read the chapter now.

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"We've gotta stop," Hige informed his passenger, turning onto the wider street and heading towards civilization. At least this was gravel, however damp and ill-maintained. The service road had been rutted dirt since they emerged from the dark tunnel, and pitted enough that the brown-haired man was half-convinced that it had destroyed at least one of his shock absorbers. "I want to find them as much as you, but I don't have any gas left, we don't have a map, and let's face it: we really don't have a clue as to where they may have gotten off, even if Zali was right and we're following the correct train."

"You can't just… smell it or something?" Toboe asked, keeping his voice low as Lebowski pulled his larger vehicle alongside the sedan. "If Kiba can sense it, it shouldn't be too hard for you, right?" The logic was simple enough: find paradise, find Blue. It made sense to Hige. They were one and the same, anyway.

Still, the older male was left to shake his head and point out the window toward the distant town, however small and run-down it might appear from below in the tree-line, yelling the word "Gas!" in explanation to Quent and Hubb. The elder Yaiden had elected to ride with his friend with just a little over-reassurance from his son. Hige wasn't sure exactly how much the bearish gray-haired man had brought the policeman up to speed, but then, he hadn't exactly informed the old sergeant of everything he knew, himself. Detective Lebowski wasn't the only one who needed time to adjust. Probably best that each of them had a copilot to insure that they kept their eyes on the road. "I don't think Kiba senses it so much as he just remembers the way. He's got lifetimes that I don't."

"He didn't look that old," Toboe observed as they started forward once more, Lebowski's big black police cruiser falling in line behind them.

"He's not. Well, I don't think he is," the driver amended, looking around for a likely station.

It was pretty low-key, but this place looked something like a run-down tourist trap: half the shops were castle-themed, or decorated with the crest of the now extinct Darcia family. One or two of these even advertised tutoring in the same sort of alchemy that had led to the family curse. Why anyone would want to experiment with something that could destroy an entire clan was beyond Hige, but hey, they did call the curse "_paradise_ sickness." There must be something that kept people dancing around it.

Though the place was hardly deserted, the listless-looking locals stuck close to the center of the town, near the storefronts and away from the crumbling remains that had survived the Darcia family's fall. There were uniformed guards around the premises, but they didn't appear to have too much trouble with people even trying to come near the devastated structure, much less steal it.

The castle ruins themselves stood where Darcia II had left them, on the crest of the hill between the town and the tree-lined family graveyard, one wall crumpled and spilling mortar from the succession wars that had followed his death. In the end, the land hadn't gone to the nearest relative or even necessarily the nearest neighbor, but to Lady Jaguara and her superior firepower. She'd said that the lands rightfully went to her through family connections, anyway, but she'd never bothered to explain those ties. With no sons or daughters to take up the mantle of Darcia III, the other would-be heirs of Darcia II found it best not to push her.

Toboe chose not to prompt Hige for further response verbally, recognizing the awkwardness in his voice when talking about the supposed dog that had led them to this town, this truth, and this emptiness. Raising a sympathetic eyebrow, the smaller redhead turned away when the driver failed to immediately elaborate.

"You ever… remembered something you shouldn't? Something that's impossible for you to remember 'cause you've never experienced it before, except that in your mind, you know you have?" Hige rambled tentatively as he turned into the gas station.

"Like déjà vu," Toboe summarized.

"Yeah, something like that." The taller man fiddled with the door handle more than was necessary. He wasn't sure he was ready to face the two coming to a stop behind him yet. "Kiba… from what I've seen of him, he has more memories like that than he does of this life. You ask him what he did three years ago and he'll just stare at you all mysteriously, but you talk to him about what happened in some… some previous reincarnation, and he can tell you stuff that he wasn't even present for. Word for word. From memory."

The younger boy turned back from the open passenger door, his rust-colored hair obscuring his face slightly where it fell just past his shoulder. It'd gotten longer, Hige noted absently, still avoiding those honey-colored eyes. Toboe had grown, too, for that matter. The stocky intern still had a few inches on his slimmer would-be brother-in-law, but not as many as when they'd started this wild ride.

"But there's no way to check what he says, right? How long ago was this past life?" the redhead asked.

Hige shrugged, grabbing the pump as soon as he was out of the car. "Who knows? All I can tell you is that what he says feels right, even if it's impossible. I mean, it looks like he was right about _me_ at least, huh?" He tried to shake Toboe off with a cavalier smile, but he didn't have to see it falsely returned to know how poor of an effort it was.

If the slender redhead had a response in mind, he kept it to himself as his elders piled out of the black police car. "Quent and I are going to check around town a bit, see what the word on the street is." Detective Lebowski still looked bemused, taking in the local sights like a lost tourist, his hands shoved firmly into his pockets as he rocked slightly on the balls of his feet.

"Maybe even break down and ask if anyone's seen a wolf or two?" Sergeant Yaiden needled his friend.

Hubb nodded vaguely. "Don't want to panic anyone," he murmured tonelessly with a slight twitch of his nostrils, as if treating mythic revelations as business as usual would make them any easier to deal with. Hige wished this could all just be blown away like so much dog hair.

"Pops?" Well, as world-weary and grown as the runt might appear now, Toboe still hadn't entirely shaken all the squeak from his voice. "Just be careful, please."

"You too." Quent Yaiden stepped forward, offering his son a brief, awkward hug. "I know, your sister would be nagging us to keep out of the bars right now, but Hubb could probably use one. Stay with Hige and see what you boys can round up in way of supplies," the blocky ex-soldier directed.

"Will do, Pops. Hige and I might dredge up some leads, too." Some of the old optimism crept back into the young redhead's voice as Toboe straightened from the embrace.

Quent's mouth crinkled upwards at this, and Hige allowed himself to feel a little more hopeful about their mental health, if not their odds. His newfound confidence lasted long enough for them to finish pumping, then turn and walk into the gas station, leaving the elder pair to fade into town behind them. Then the gray-haired shadow split away from the crowd and trailed after Quent Yaiden as if magnetized, and the stocky young man felt his eyebrows creep up towards his hairline once more.

"Well, it's not exactly Tsume, anyway," he muttered to himself, trying to dismiss the haunted-eyed - very light brown, if not a certain shade of icteric haunted-eyed - old woman from his suspicions. For all the sandy brunet knew, she just happened to have important business to attend in the same direction as the one the detective and his favorite bounty hunter had moseyed off in. Business that made her shoot a couple of quick, questioning glances at the younger two men of the Yaiden clan before she rounded the corner. There didn't have to be some underlying mystery.

"Who, the old lady?" Toboe asked, his eyes following after her brief appearance. "She didn't _look_ dangerous…" The youth's large honey-brown eyes narrowed slightly in thought. "Though I don't know how far I'd trust looks anymore…"

Hige just gave him a push in the direction of his disappeared father. Supplies could wait and gas was quick enough to pay for. "Looks like you just got your first lead."

Stealth… well, it wasn't exactly out of the question, but you didn't creep through a dive of a trampy old town like this on tiptoe and stop with your back to every paint-chipped brick wall on a chilly, overcast day that never quite made good on the threat of rain. Not quite hauling the thinner boy in his wake, Hige moseyed into the crowd, walking only a little faster than he would normally. No need to panic.

"Not everyone's like you, Hige!" Toboe complained. "Wait up." Okay, maybe the frizzy-haired intern was going more than a little faster than his usual walk.

"We're barely keeping up with her as is, and I want to reach her before she gets to your pops," Hige bluntly tried to justify himself.

"And what do we do when we catch up?" his smaller companion asked reasonably enough, though there was a hint of something - fear, frustration, or simply impatience - to his tone. "We don't even know she's heading after him."

"So we'll ask her what she's doing," Hige replied with a shrug, trying to keep his pace down to something more comfortable for Toboe without losing the trail. Surely they hadn't let Lebowski and the elder Yaiden get that far ahead of them… Just where was this old lady going? Hige could have sworn that she was headed after the other two members of their company, but she certainly seemed to be taking a really circuitous route if that were her true goal. So far she hadn't acknowledged her own shadowing followers through the back ways between old shops and heavy air, but that could change at any moment.

Toboe, obviously tired of running, shrugged, stepped one more pace forward, and opened his mouth. "He-" he got out before Hige tackled him.

"Hello? Anyone home? What are you thinking, runt?" the sandy-haired man hissed, hoping that the simple act of stopping the redhead hadn't attracted the attention it had been intended to prevent. "We don't know her."

"I was thinking that most people would prefer to be asked directly than to be stalked by a stranger or two," the smaller male replied peevishly, pushing Hige away and crossing his arms firmly to his chest.

"Yeah, people like your father." She'd escaped out of sight as the newly admitted wolf attempted to deal with his smaller companion, and Hige wasn't sure if he'd be able to recognize her scent in the daily bustle of a fading town. "Let's try to catch up with him and Mr. Lebowski, at least." Those two, at least, would be easier to find in a crowd of smells. Hige had never purposely taken much note of anyone's scent, much less tailed somebody like a dog, but Blue and Toboe's old man was easy enough to identify, and Hubb Lebowski still wore that cologne that his ex had gotten him for their last anniversary, the one she'd sent her intern out to buy for her as a last-minute favor when she'd nearly forgotten the date.

Hige breathed deep, taking in the damp old city air. It was cleaner here than the lower parts of Freeze City, though the brunet still caught a whiff of something fungal growing into the wooden facades on the fronts of the buildings. Here and there, the spoor turned acidic, sour, fermenting what it could from the chilly air and overcast light. And there… down that way was the scent of the results of another type of fermentation, something less mushroomy and more burnt, a little warmer than the rest of the air. It could have been anyone; there were certainly people who gave off more warmth both literally and personality-wise than Quent Yaiden, but gut memory assured him that he was on target. "Come on," Hige motioned to Toboe before setting off. Besides, follow the main drag of an old town long enough and one was bound to find a bar, and there was no better place to start looking for the elder Yaiden.

As to anyone else who might be looking for him… Hige couldn't completely rule out the idea that it had just been a coincidence. He still hadn't abandoned all hope in this town, yet.


	68. Her Intentions Fall to the Floor

A/N: I feel it coming back again: I don't own them; Bones does. So here we are, almost upon the two year anniversary, with another wolf revealed. Kinda snuck up on me, this time, so the chapter's a little short, but I promise that it won't take another year to get the rest of them revealed. (Most of them, at least.) I might even get the explanation behind our missing Darcia III by that point. Thanks again for all the faves, story alerts, and reviews!

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I couldn't make out the words as I attempted to rise to at least a sitting position, but I recognized both speakers as female, familiar, frightened and furious with one another as they attempted to keep the argument civil enough that they could focus elsewhere. At least, Cher Lebowski sounded scared, and I couldn't say I blamed her. If whatever point she'd been trying to make to Jaguara failed to impress the noble - the lady had almost killed me for much less.

"- Even half-wolves are so rare as to be unheard of, and this is Blue - potentially the blue half of what is required by paradise," the blue-eyed blonde corrected herself, as if trying to avoid letting on how much she knew about me. "There's no sense wasting her - her blood when you may need both to open the gate. It's not just the stone itself that will do it, is it?"

I at least achieved a shaky balance with all four limbs on the ground and pawed awkwardly at the strap wrapped tightly about my throat, stopping nearly as soon as I began from the hundreds of needles that sliced into me with the smallest jolt.

"No; it is not by the stone alone, but blue by itself is as useless to me as if V-45 were pure-blooded human. There must be a balance between the blue and the gold within the same specimen." Ah hell, no. Even if Dr. Lebowski wheedled Jaguara to postpone my outright execution the way I thought she was about to, I think I'd almost rather bleed out and be dissected. I'm sure Tsume would rather it that way. "That is why I'm saving the white for last." Well, that was reassuring. For Kiba, if he could even hear her.

I could almost turn my head, as long as I took it slowly and didn't let any of the bloodstained tubes get caught on the corner of the table. The pale wolf at my side was still unmoving, making me wonder exactly how Jaguara was "saving" him. "Kiba?" I hissed, not really expecting a response. I got about what I thought I would.

"The flower in the form of a maiden usually is accompanied by more than one wolf, isn't she?" the doctor tried again.

"Only one counts. She might find more than one whose wishes she might grant, but her soul is tied to but one of them." Jaguara's words were hardly reassuring, but they gave me an idea, at least.

"Kiba, I heard her." I lowered my head towards his worryingly still ruff. I had to be ginger about it, but staying low eased the drag on the needles. "Cheza."

That brought both snowy white ears sharply upwards. I don't care what alchemy Jaguara had used on him. His flower maiden's spell was older and far more powerful. With all the measured gravity of an inexorably oncoming storm, he turned sharp yellow eyes upon me. "No wonder," he murmured, finding something to smile about in my appearance, even with the ring of blood lines radiating from my throat, squeezing too tight, and the enemy barely distracted from us and standing but four of her long, imperious strides away. "You remember, now, now that she talked to you."

Remembered what? That in a previous life, I'd been kept as a pet? That in another, I'd been able to push my younger - not _youngest, _but _Bruce_, a full-grown, apple-of-our-Momma's-eyes Bruce - brother to talk with one of my best friends and watch them hit it off? The feel of a wolf's throat crumpling between my teeth from yet another lifetime? That no more than two lifetimes ago, I'd voluntarily been strapped into an array like this, knowing it would kill me and not caring because it was the only way I knew to be useful after I'd realized what I was? The feel of Cheza's hand as she petted me and knowing right at the end that no matter how sweet the song that accompanied it, Cheza's touch couldn't soothe me nearly as well as Hige's as we lay dying in the snow… "What's so great about it? Memories don't change anything."

He just smiled with half-opened jaws in the way wolves do, still not able to wag his tail. "You'd be surprised."

That was when he stood up and Jaguara turned back around. Violet eyes widened beneath the half-mask, and the noblewoman went for her sword, knocking Cher Lebowski away without ever looking away from Kiba. She was not depending merely on a half-focused alchemic spell now. Swallowing back a wave of lightheaded nausea and eye-crossing pain, I ripped open the strap about my neck and shook the needles away, trying not to think of how much blood I was likely losing along with it. I needed to assist Kiba while Jaguara was distracted, get Dr. Lebowski away from this fight, see if there was some way to escape the noble's clutches completely…

Kiba had already sprung. No hypnotized victim herself, Jaguara met the pale wolf's open maw with her blade, sending him flying in the opposite direction from where Dr. Lebowski had gone down. Kiba was quicker to return to his feet than I could stumble to mine, the world still spinning drunkenly before my blood-deprived eyes as he closed for another, lower bite. The noblewoman parried below her waist, swinging her weapon like a deadly cricket bat into the angered white's cheek.

I didn't see him land this time, but I heard the crash and clatter as tumbled into the far wall, tangled in the blood lines, a long red line smeared across the floor. I snarled, trying to keep myself from swaying woozily before I ran at her myself. Now, while she was focused on Kiba… Just one hit; just one stab in the back of the neck and she'd be done for. If only I could get my trembling hands to clutch my switchblade and rubbery legs to hold me up… Just a little further…

It wasn't a knife that skittered off the back of the noblewoman's breastplate and made Cher Lebowski cry out as it sailed over her head, but black paws ending in thick claws. Ancient, jumbled memory snaked my fangs into the spiked neck guard around Jaguara's own throat, but I still would have been more comfortable with knife in hand. It was just… I was exhausted. Between the blood loss, the missing Collar, the shock of muddled memories, and the adrenaline that substituted for the missing red liquid life within my body, I could no longer instinctively maintain the illusion that had become so natural to me. It was too much. It was too much, and Jaguara was not yet winded, not wounded and bleeding from anywhere but that half-closed line above her collarbone. I could not expect victory here; at best I could only delay the inevitable and perhaps save the doctor.

Cher Lebowski's voice still rang in my ears as the armor-clad noblewoman spun, her sword in hand. All I could do was brace for impact.


	69. So Can We Find Out?

A/N: My apologies; this is the chapter that wouldn't end... at least it's fairly long for your wait. And yes, this is as close as Warg will get to including a "new she-wolf joins the pack and falls for one of the lead characters" Mary Sue, and she's based on the she-wolf that Hubb met in prison crossed with the other Hanabito. Yes, I postponed slash for this. Thank goodness I don't own it, eh? Good night, everybody!

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The first sign of her presence had been a determinedly polite clearing of her throat behind the two men at the bar. "Are you sure that you two ought to be lowering your inhibitions any further?"

Quent finished his drink before replying without turning, "What's it matter to you?"

Hubb, who admittedly was beginning to lose a little feeling in his fingertips, at least offered her a quick glance back. The woman seemed caught between pride and fear, her eyes sweeping the bar even as Quent chose to focus on the bottle between the two men. "The local nobility… disapprove of certain topics," she said delicately, pulling her arms closer about herself. "One does not typically discuss them where one might be overheard."

"I'm still failing to see why this is any concern of yours." The older man picked up the bottle of vodka to pour himself another glass, but Hubb put a hand to his arm before she reached for him. They were stopping for information on how to find Blue and Cher, not just as an excuse to get plastered.

Hubb's ex-wife had said that she was in the south; that she was safe, but considering the way she had sounded -strained, hurried, worried about Tsume of all people, warning Hubb away from following her directly with backup through the usual channels… Hubb didn't think that safety could last. He'd been willing to bet his badge on it, pestering his superiors about the Gateway Isle, researching everything he could as he sped on the long drive down. The precinct had let him run on the excuse of a gang bust; he'd been trying to wear away at the Claw Gang for years now and bringing in their leader would be a major victory for the Freeze City police. They weren't happy about him leaving with no backup and frankly, neither was he, but who knew what kept Cher captive? She hadn't seemed to have liked the idea of any authority getting involved with the message and she hadn't answered any further calls. Frankly, that worried Hubb almost as much as that beast that had shown up at the clinic.

Well, if Hubb could give Quent Yaiden credit where credit was due, the old bounty hunter could afford to listen when someone else might offer them decent advice. The gray-haired woman crossed her arms once more before she spoke, loosing a soft sigh. "They do not like hearing of us, and we do not appreciate it when they do."

"'Us?'" Quent asked, turning to face her at last. His expression soured further as he took in her amber-brown eyes. "I'd hoped we'd seen the last of your kind for a while."

"You're hardly the only one." The ghost of a smile flickered across the wrinkled corners of her eyelids, gone as quickly as it had appeared. "We try not to earn the attention of the nobles for a reason."

Maybe it was just as well that Hubb was going numb about his nose as well as his fingertips. It saved him from sneezing in her presence. Maybe his brain was a little numb, too. It made it easier accept what Yaiden and this stranger were implying than it really should have been. "How many are there of you, in this town, if you don't mind me asking?" Hubb started tentatively.

"Not including the ones that have attracted the nobles' attention?" Her nose crinkled slightly to the side as she considered the two men. "Two, that I know. We try not to think about the others. It saves on talk that might reach the aristocracy and their... supporters." As a detective on duty, the green-eyed man was not in a uniform, per se, but the travel-stained, rather rumpled trenchcoat and fedora were typical of his breed, as well as less savory gatherers of information that worked for the nobility. If she started thinking of them as wolf hunters, - an appellation Hubb Lebowski never thought he'd ever apply seriously, much less what she was - the men would lose this potential lead even more abruptly than it had arrived.

"What happened to the others?" Hubb asked. He wasn't sure he should inquire about the other undercover wolf. He wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of them as potential enemies from the get-go.

She motioned briefly towards the exit. "It might be best to show you. The place isn't too far from town, just past the castle ruins. They used to grow plants there, but these days, Lady Jaguara and her people prefer to grow other things."

Quent shook his head, ready to turn back to his drink, but the cop was raring to investigate - as well as see what the boys might have gotten into. "Has anyone been taken there recently? A tall, white-haired young man, for instance?" Hubb was almost afraid to ask about their girls.

The old woman waved them out of the bar once more, and Hubb rose to follow her. Throwing enough money to cover their drinks onto the counter, Yaiden stood as well, though he followed at a slower pace than his younger companion. "It is best not to discuss it here," she repeated.

Once outside, she adjusted her shawl and raised her face to the chill breeze that ghosted around this decaying town, as if sniffing the air. Hubb took the opportunity to take a glance around the cool, clouded streets himself and drop a hopefully private word in Quent's ear. There was no telling exactly how good this old wolf-woman's hearing was. "Do you see the boys?"

Yaiden just shook his head, taking his own stock of the little dying tourist town. "Where exactly are trying to take us, wolf?" The gray-haired bear of a man had kept his voice down, for all its angry bite, but she drew back in wary irritation all the same. She did not, Hubb noted uneasily, try to correct Yaiden, however.

"The Darcias' former garden, now an alchemy lab for Lady Jaguara. For all I know, old Lord Darcia might have had more growing in there than hothouse flowers, but he did not require our blood." She didn't shudder, exactly, not the way that Hubb did, but she pulled her shawl tighter and her spine straighter as she spoke of the fallen noble. If Hubb didn't know it to be only a trick of the alcohol, he would have thought he could see her hackles rise. "The Lady Jaguara, however, does not leave any resource to waste." With that, she set off at a fair clip for her advanced age, especially considering that she appeared to expect two wolf-wary strangers stumbling from their alcohol to follow her towards danger unknown and unspeakable, at least to her in this part of town.

"Blood?" Hubb stumbled. Quent caught him by the arm, trying to hush him with a look, but the question was already out.

The old woman glanced back, never slowing even as a pale eyebrow rose above her amber eyes. "It is the way we blend in, human, and what makes so gifted an alchemist as the Lady Jaguara stand out."

Well, there had always been rumors that the nigh-immortal nobles weren't entirely human. "So she's -"

"No." The word was firm and final, allowing no other questions. For a few moments, the only sound was the movement of crowds through the old streets. "If she were… one of us, she would not cling so to the tree. She believes herself chosen by the tree of all seeds, but such a being would not need to sacrifice others in order to maintain her false paradise. If she were one of the chosen few, she would be able to find her way to the tree and paradise by her own blood. She would not need to risk them with the creation of the very thing that would destroy and supplant them that she would use to guide herself there."

Quent muttered to himself, growing slightly more audible as their guide finished her outburst, but his words still slurred and ran together in half-worried, half-awed inebriated contemplation. Hubb knew his friend to be as drunk as he was, but he was not expecting the phrases "lily-white supple maiden," "distiller of time," or "blood of the ancients" to figure in Yaiden's vocabulary. "…These are the words of Red Moon," the elder man finished under his breath as if in profane pagan prayer.

There was a chance that it was - though Hubb Lebowski was not one to read forbidden books, his wife had held a keen interest in the old legends and Quent Yaiden knew more about the Book of the Moon than one who didn't own a copy should. Hubb suspected that Blue and Toboe had been raised in her mother's faith more out of respect for the dearly departed Rebecca Yaiden than any belief on their father's part.

What of the woman's pronouncement brought this on? Hubb knew that the banned book concerned the path to paradise, as well as the wolves that were supposed to lead one there, but Lebowski knew little beyond that. He'd heard nothing of ancient-blooded girls who could stop time involved in the remains of the tale that had survived past the ban.

The amber-eyed elder turned to search their faces, nodding slightly when yellow-brown eyes met briefly with near-black. Then she started, her nostrils flaring as Hubb at last heard the familiar pair of hurried footsteps peel away from the crowd.

"Pops?" Toboe sounded nervous about calling out to them, though he attempted to hide it with a bracelet-clattering wave. "Mr. Lebowski? You okay?" Hige, too, was going for tight-lipped, reinforced casualness, his hands shoved deep into his pockets and his arched spine a poor mockery of a slouch, his eyes questing back and forth between Yaiden, Lebowski, and the old woman behind half-hooded lids. Hubb nodded, trying not to let the nervous energy radiating off the boys infect him, too.

"More of you," the woman murmured to herself, her nose twitching as the boys slowly approached. "Or perhaps I should say more of us." Not bothering to explain her cryptic correction anymore than Quent was willing to explain the Book of the Moon quote, she turned and forged on towards the edge of town.

"Who was that?" Hige asked. The laughter in his voice was a touch more brittle, more hysterical than usual.

"She's going to find us Blue," Quent replied shortly, bringing his son to his side with a quick opening of his arms. "And from there… we'll see."

"How did she find her?" Toboe asked, reasonably enough. There really wasn't an honest answer to that question; Quent and Hubb were working more off of instinct than logical fact. The cop in Lebowski disliked the idea, but any lead was better than nothing, by this point.

Quent pressed him onward, following behind the woman who called herself a wolf. "That kind gets everywhere they shouldn't, Toboe. May as well make use of it."

"What, girls?" Although Hubb had to repress a snort at the redhead's question, it was partially one of horrified agreement. He wasn't sure that their group could even reach their missing partners. All the four men could do right now was trust in this stranger who seemed to have walked straight out of one of Cher's fairytales… or Quent Yaiden's nightmares.


	70. A Million Poppies Gonna Make Me Sleep

A/N: So, yay for snow. It gets me caught up on projects that are terribly behind schedule. Fortunately, they don't belong to me. Thank you all for keeping me and "Blues" on your alerts!

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I woke in a cage. There was something heavy and tight around my neck, but at least it didn't cut into my windpipe. My wrists were weighed down with rubber-lined metal, and I held little hope that the softer lining was there to soothe my raw skin. Jaguara had decided to save me for now, but it probably wasn't just because Dr. Lebowski's pleas for mercy had changed her heart's desires to our benefit. My head spun with every weak pump of my pulse, and the holes in my throat had been supplemented with a long gash in my side. There were no bandages on me, only shackles and dark fur. If I hadn't bled out, I had no idea why.

Even so, the wounds seemed to be clotting; only a thin trickle of fresh blood seeped from the sword wound that extended from my right shoulder down my ribs. Awkwardly, I turned to lick the blood away, seeing as my paws would be of little use to stanch the flow. I tasted pollen, and looked up into the riot of white blossoms growing above me once more. Perhaps more than their scent could come in useful…

I turned to look for my other guide to Paradise. Kiba had to still be alive; the white wolf was too stubborn for me to ever believe otherwise. We might be separated in our capture and spread out beneath the dome, but he was still alive and in the area. He would be back to round us up and chivvy us onward just as soon as he willed himself out of his prison. If anyone could resist the noble's alchemy and break loose, it would be him.

He had not managed it yet. I was alone in this part of the greenhouse, save for the flowers. The scents of wolves and human alike were faint compared to their heavy perfume.

The smell of those flowers threatened to lull me back to sleep; I was not Kiba to break my chains and escape by willpower alone. Better to be rested when he came, they seemed to speak to me. Better to lie quiet and heal quicker. My head felt heavy and yet empty at the same time - the weight of my bloodless skull too much for healing cervical muscles. I rested it against my forelegs, a somewhat softer, warmer pillow than the loose dirt lining the steel cage floor. Why anyone would need a barred planter with manacles within was beyond my exhausted comprehension, but this cage certainly hadn't been custom-built for a wolf. It was far sturdier than it needed to be.

My eyelids had just about succumbed to the flowers' spell when the ship took off. Its distant buzz, always unnatural, felt like steaming irons on a slate to unguarded wolf's ears. I pinned them back against my head as I flinched, but it hardly dampened the noise.

Footsteps rustled between the climbing vines, the staccato of heels muffled and left irregular from the soil spread unevenly over concrete. More unevenly since our arrival - I could see rents in the dirt and the darker ochre of dried blood beneath the dusting of pollen, and some of the planting stakes looked worse for wear as well. "Blue?" Dr. Lebowski's voice, soft but prodding, overcame the tail end of the departing engine's whine. "I hope Neige knows what she's doing… Blue, please be alive; I promised her that we'd get you out of here." The blonde bent in front of the cage, her hand extended uncertainly towards the shackles tying me to the floor.

I flicked my ears forward out of unfamiliar reflex, trying to shake off the exhaustion and the last of the aftereffects of the combination of alchemy and mindless panic. Whatever shape I was in, I needed to settle and think about what was going on, not blindly follow Kiba or Jaguara or the flowers' - Cheza's? - unspoken commands. Instinct pushed me after them, certainly not any sense of self-preservation. Cher Lebowski I trusted to help me sort through the wolf's gut reactions and the instincts of a more metropolitan hunter that might actually help us out of this mess. Cher, at least, was no wolf. I did not need Jaguara's accusations to confirm what scent and years of familiarity had already told me.

Of course, it wouldn't have been the first wolf I'd missed…

"I'm here. I think," I added a little less confidently. "You have a plan to get out of here?"

She rattled the shackles against the bars to no avail. "Not entirely," the blonde doctor admitted as she circled, looking for a latch. "The cavalry is on its way and Neige has gotten Lady Jaguara out of the picture temporarily, but she took your friend with her, the white wolf."

In many ways, this news came as a relief. We'd have to face the noblewoman eventually; she knew what we were and had tried to use us as unknowing raw materials in her experiments, but not now. Not divided and broken and unsure of my very species. I could hunt her later and face her on my own terms, on my own ground. It might not be Kiba's paradise, but I'd prefer it to be my own. If only temporarily, it was as good to be free of the possessed pale lupine as it was to be free of Jaguara.

The next step was getting free of this cage, and then this black-furred form. Then I could find Pops, Hige, and Toboe. From there, maybe, things would start making sense again. "We'll have to just take it one step at a time," I said to steady myself as much as Cher Lebowski, easing my head off my paws and shifting my weight forward. I'd try to stand up further, but my cage and chains didn't offer much in the way of headroom or slack on my wrists. I shook a fine layer of powder off my fur, hoping to send lethargy and indecision with it. "What about Tsume?"

"He's pinned as thoroughly as any other specimen." The doctor gave me a brittle half-grin, twisting her hand around the edge of the cage. "Forgive me, Blue, but… you're wolves. If you two weren't trapped here with me, I'd think that this was all some wild fantasy, the result of too much time reading in the lab. I still feel half-convinced that it's a dream and I'll wake up any moment."

She wasn't the only one, though it was closer to inexplicable nightmare for me. "'Fraid I can't pinch you."

"I'll be all right." Thoughtlessly, Dr. Lebowski stuck her hand through the bars and scratched the fur between my ears. It was like when Pops would rub my head, I thought, trying to stay optimistic. "I'm sure we'll adapt." She finally realized what she had done, grimacing in apology and snatching her hand back as if she expected me to try and take it off. My teeth weren't as insubstantial as a dream anymore, after all. "Sorry, it's…"

"It's okay," I reassured her. A pat on the head was hardly the worst thing that had happened to me today. "We'll adapt." Slowly. "Let's just figure out how to get out of this before the cavalry comes." I twisted to gnaw restlessly on the bars as Cher Degre-Lebowski searched for lock and key. Willpower alone might not break me free, but combined with the right focus and some help from my friends, I might get loose before Kiba.


	71. Situation No Win

Brace yourselves, Warg is updating. It's been over a year, but at least it's a long one for your wait, with enough action and puzzle pieces that I was tempted to spilt it into two parts. I blame the owl, personally. Fortunately, the Wolf's Rain cast, settings, and mythos are not mine, or they'd be stuck in cold-storage for way too long. Also, the M-rating ought to come in a chapter or two, if you find it difficult to ever find another update. (As long as I'm finding them from somewhere...)

* * *

"In there?" Hige asked incredulously. Well, it wasn't like anyone could really blame him. The ruined castle was still foreboding in its crumbled splendor, its once-proud walls ceding grudgingly to the forest-shadowed graveyard beyond them. The guards remained at their posts, shifting from foot to foot and turning restively, but their display of boredom didn't inspire confidence in Hige. A five-man (well, three-man, one-wolf, and one-crazy-old-lady, if one wanted to get technical,) raid on an abandoned castle could relieve that boredom, at least for the short time that would be the rest of their lives.

"Past there," their amber-eyed guide corrected him, pointing towards the tree-line. "Into the woods. We'll find your friends in the old conservatory, if there's any of them left alive." She didn't sound particularly optimistic about their chances. Why did Hige want to interpret "any of them" as "any piece of them?"

No reason to share that particular line of thought with the others. If the way Hubb Lebowski pinched disbelievingly at the bridge of his nose between bleary eyes was any indication, Hige wasn't the only one to consider the possibility, though hopefully the old lady was the only one to take it seriously. This was Blue. She wouldn't go down that easily, even if she was facing one of the nobles.

One of the nobles who did _that, _a little voice in the back of his mind added unnecessarily, eyes sidling along the castle ruins once more.

"Let's go, then." Toboe was the first to rise from their hideaway, rolling up his sleeves with a clatter of bangles. Hige grabbed his collar before the redhead could charge onwards.

"Yeah, let's go around back, then," Hige corrected. "You do know some secret entrance that doesn't require going within bullet range of the ruins, right?"

The old woman's eyebrows quirked upwards. "You think I've survived this long by announcing myself openly to Lady Jaguara's soldiers? They guard it tightly, but the woods are not completely impenetrable." Once again, the elderly woman seemed to rise too fast, too fluidly, altogether too soundlessly for her age. "I doubt we can use this route more than once, though. It is usually better to leave the others to their fates if one does not want to face the extinction of the species in truth."

"How many have you seen captured?" Lebowski asked quietly, his voice still blunted from alcohol and too many revelations in too short a time.

"Too many." She didn't make eye contact. "If you plan to rescue your compatriots, it would be better to do so sooner rather than later."

Lebowski rose to follow as quickly as Toboe, but wasn't silenced so easily. "And you never tried to save them before? You never went to the police or another noble?"

"Whaddya expect from a wolf?" Quent Yaiden's slurred growl rumbled from behind his friend. That earned him a look back, and Hige had to silently appreciate the old woman for shushing him. It wasn't so much that the comment was indirectly pointed at him and his parents - it was those guns that could be directly trained on the group if they started discussing a taboo topic much too close Jaguara's troops.

"That generally is what one does when one's offspring are taken from one, but against Lady Jaguara? What good would it do one of my kind to seek help from the nobles and their lawmen?" she hissed around sharp teeth.

Hige was half-tempted to point out Lebowski's profession. "They don't have to know who or what you are. All we need is a nice, quiet sneak in and out, or if all else fails, a distraction." He wasn't necessarily volunteering, but if it got Blue out, he had talked his way out of worse trouble. He hoped.

The old lady had led them out past the edge of the rundown town, barely within view of the castle. There was still a shout from the guards and the heart-thrashing report of a semi-automatic - it went so wide that Hige had to believe that the castle guardians were intentionally screwing with them; he heard the root-shaking hum of a charging laser as he dived for the trees - and then they were swallowed within the forest. With most wooded areas Hige had visited, the line wasn't so sharp or so stark - certainly, one could tell where the trees had been planted initially and the underbrush would swallow you up from sight eventually, but there was underbrush. There were skinny little saplings and fallen branches and a ragged edge on the war between cultivation and wilderness in which one could see both human handiwork and the untamable beyond. But here… On one side of the tree-line, the castle had been perfectly clear. Jaguara's men had been mere steps away from catching them. The smoke-and-fungus-and-stench of the old town had been thick in the humid air. On the other side, there was nothing but Hige, Toboe, Quent, Hubb, the old stranger, and the giant, ancient trees.

"What is this place?" the little redhead murmured in awe, not even brushing himself off as he took in the stark gray lines of the forest.

"The Forest of Death does not carry scents," their guide said, looking more confident once the five of them had entered the premature evening gloom of the trees. "Tracking devices do not work here. Sunlight won't penetrate through these branches. It is difficult enough to leave this place, but we might be assured that none will follow us in."

Hige whistled, the note fading away into the hush of the empty trees. "This? This is kind of insane. I think I like it. Does that mean I'm crazy?"

"Probably," Quent replied good-naturedly, "but you're in good company, as long as it gets us to my girl." He patted the rifle beneath his sling like a trusted talisman.

"Don't lose track of those in front of you. It's hard enough to find one's way through when one enters these woods right by the castle. There are few landmarks, and the tree shadows can play tricks on the eyes." The woman who called herself a wolf beckoned them onwards. Her stride was longer now, her steps higher; the bend of her back reminded Hige less of a frail, world-weary old dame and more of a stalking predator. In the poor light filtering down through the thick mass of tangled, leafless limbs above them, the edge of her shawl reminded the frizzy-haired brunet of Cole's raised hackles as she'd confronted her brother.

Part of him wondered if he were subconsciously dropping his own illusion. Hige glanced behind him to see Quent's good hand tightening on the rifle, his son and best friend each putting a hand to a blocky shoulder, Toboe's bracelets jingling through the otherwise deathly silent woods despite himself, and focused on his hands. They had to stay hands.

This was shaping up to be a long walk. Hige wasn't comfortable with those, and not just because he'd never been much for athletics. "So what's your story, anyway?" he asked the older wolf-woman. "I don't think we've even gotten a name from you before you offered to sneak us in past the guards."

"If it matters to you, my people called me Winter." The pale yellow-brown eyes took in the scenery longer than they lingered on Hige. "They are long gone now, so I suppose 'wolf' will serve just as well, so long as there are none of the nobles' men to hear it." She offered Quent a wry half-smile. "I will not see my pack again in this lifetime, but I am not yet eager to join them in the next. How else might we set a better course for our next encounter with Lady Jaguara?"

Hige Wolfe shrugged. "Don't be so sure; that nickname might be more common than you think, Winter." Toboe traded a silent worried gaze with him, the younger male's brow furrowing beneath the shaggy auburn hairline. "At least the rest of your pack won't have to deal with her in particular, right?" As usual, Hige tried to turn his worry into a joke, no matter how dark.

"Not yet," was all the old woman was willing to say in return, her voice a low and rough intruder in the near-silence of the forest.

Hubb Lebowski's was so foreign to their surroundings as to belong to a different place entirely. "Please tell me I'm not hearing any conspiracy to murder…" he muttered.

"Course not," the elder Yaiden assured his friend. "You're drunk."

"Really, really drunk," Lebowski agreed, breathing in deeply and then rubbing at his nose. Hige wasn't sure what could have activated the man's allergies; even he could barely smell the others as they walked not three feet away from him. There was no wind here. "I just hope I don't sober up too soon."

"In a place like this, you kinda start feeling high on life," Hige remarked. There seemed to be little else alive in here; the trees offered no winter buds or browning needles. The leaves fallen to the forest floor were so old as to have long crumbled into dust.

He was almost getting used to the still of the deathly forest when something whirred overhead, its buzz shocking Toboe into an ungraceful tumble. Quent swore before helping his son back to his feet, though Toboe was reluctant to put weight against his father's injured arms, pushing himself upright a fraction slower than the wounded man hauled. "What was that?" the redhead asked, his arm around his elder.

Their resident expert on the dark woods lifted her face towards the tangled branches, tracing the line of attack with a long nose and amber-yellow eyes. "I thought you said they couldn't track us in here," Quent added, impatient with her silence.

"They cannot, though I wouldn't put it past them to try, leaving soldiers as far along the perimeter as they can spare the patrol," she summarized with her typical level of cheeriness. "There are few things that can live in the Forest of Death, but there is no shortage of beetles to eat the corpses."

"How lovely," Hige murmured to Toboe, catching the boy's grimace of disgust.

"We'd best keep moving if we do not wish to number among their meals." The old woman, on the other hand, appeared unmoved by the encounter. "They're less common deeper into the forest, at least."

"How much deeper and darker can you get?" Hige asked, taking in the ancient trees. Yes, this was likely going to be a very, very long walk.

"It's not scary or anything." Toboe sounded as if he were attempting to convince himself as much as anyone else. "The quiet's kind of peaceful. Except for the bugs."

"There is a system of caverns in the heart of the forest. Through them, we may be able to shake the guardians awaiting us on the edge of the forest and circle back to the conservatory." The white-haired woman didn't mock the skinny youth, but she wasn't necessarily comforting anyone, either. Her eyes still searched the barren gray canopy, as if she suspected more than beetles despite her words.

Well, it wasn't like Hige could figure out where they were headed just by the trees, after all. They were all huge, appearing mostly dead, if still solid. They could try to leave marks as they passed, but then there went their clean escape from the castle guardians. Maybe there was some method to the tangled branches overhead to act as a landmark, but hell if the suburban-reared intern could figure it out. His specialty lay in biochemistry, not botany or woods-craft.

"You lost?" Trust Sergeant Yaiden to cut right to the most likely thing to go wrong.

"We are without scents, in low light, and entered in great haste. This is not an area I frequent of my own free choice," she replied coldly.

"So basically, we're lost," Hige confirmed. Not that that was anything new. "I'd joke about the woman being the one unwilling to stop for directions for once, but there's not really anybody here to ask."

"Doesn't look like it," Toboe agreed, pulling his bangles to a muffled silence against his chest, running his other hand restively across them. The youngest male had begun to search the dead forest as well, his larger honey-brown eyes flickering from tree to tree at greater speeds than the crone's whiskey-yellow.

She raised a hand, low and to her side, but the meaning was still clear to officers of the law and the young men that had lived with them. Hubb was the first to halt, one hand going towards the stun-gun in his pocket, though there was not really anything to shock here, unless he was in the mood for roasted corpse beetle fried on natural deadwood. Quent stilled automatically, then stepped even with the old woman like an obstinate hound snapping at his leash. "What?" he asked, his voice biting but low in concession to her stiffened posture.

"There are still ways to reach the caverns. One simply has to be attuned for their presence." Her eyes turned sharply from one branch above them to another. Hige still failed to notice any difference between them.

"More beetles?" Toboe ventured, sounding rather less than enthused about the whole concept.

"Not precisely," the old woman said. "Some of them may have once been beetles, and more of them may have been gnawed upon by beetles, but the form isn't the important part. The Tree of All Seeds' roots extend far, but souls might be absorbed by other plants."

Hubb Lebowski shook his head, giving Quent a despairing aside glance. "Isn't one mythical species that's supposed to be extinct enough for one day? What's with the tree?" Hige had to agree with him, even if he had gotten a few extra days to get used to the concept of wolves in general. Dealing with a certain lupine nature in particular ought to earn him at least one week off from crazy revelations.

Old Sergeant Yaiden took his friend's question - as well as the woman's silent but rising irritation with the continued disruption - in stride. "Why do you think they call it the Forest of Death?"

"I figured the Forest of Flesh-Eating Beetles didn't go over too well with the locals," Hige shot back with ease, if not lightheartedness.

"Shh… there," the amber-eyed woman breathed in hushed triumph. Hige thought he caught a glimpse of brown-and-sand feathers through the shadow-grayed boughs of the trees, but it was gone as quickly as the thought, silent in the still air. When he turned back towards their guide, so was the woman.

Winter landed not far from where she had started from; her posture triumphant even if her muscles betrayed her age and stiffness. Lean, pale legs trembled as she straightened and lifted her long nose up towards the trees and their half-seen inhabitant. "Shadow of the forest, lead us not astray." Her voice was soft enough that Hige doubted it could carry even in this silent atmosphere, but she seemed confident of being heard by whatever it was haunting the trees. Quent Yaiden, meanwhile, had taken up a growled stream of curses as his son and Hubb released breaths of their own. Hige didn't know what the big deal was. They'd seen wolves before.

She offered them a single glance over her shoulder before padding deeper into the trackless old forest with the owl feather in her mouth, her eyes always focusing upwards for a flash of silent wings. Hige caught sight of it only rarely; even the feather dangling from the old wolf's jaws seemed translucent, unreal.

Toboe had rushed up quickly after Winter had claimed her prize, taking his cue from her renewed purposeful pace. Though the boy had complained at Hige's race through the city, he certainly was moving fast enough now. As Hige and the elder humans followed behind him, the brunet swore he heard the echo of a hooting owl, a hoot that sounded suspiciously like laughter. "You would leave your tree to follow me? Hoo, what brave strays ye surely be!" The soft flap of powdered wings spurred their guide on, but if any of her human followers had heard the bird's mocking chuckle, they gave no sign of it. "What's lost is lost, and shan't return; what cost you've tossed aside to learn."

"Damn owl," Hige muttered to himself. The ghostly creature couldn't be right. It didn't know a thing about why they were here. It spoke only nonsense and echoing laughter. Hige Wolfe liked it better when he couldn't understand animals.

"I take it she's found her way, then?" Hubb inquired in breathless deadpan, clutching one hand to his hat.

Quent followed the wolf's gaze toward the treetops. "Something like that, I'm sure." Hige wasn't certain whether the old man had heard the bird's jeers as anything more than hoots; his scowl had been plastered to his face since the wolf had brought them here.

He'd certainly have reason to hate the owl if he could hear it. "You tie the circles spinning tighter, to buy the lives that you seek after. Would you break cycles bound for so many years? Spirits sacrifice ground for what you fear." Yeah, easy for a ghostly bird to talk about losing ground. The longer they spent here, the more time Jaguara had to do who-knew-what to Blue, Tsume, and Kiba.

"We have got to get out of this forest," Hige grumbled, eyes on the owl that swam unseen through the dead, tangled canopy.

"Deep are the tombs, where the world takes root; steep pay its wombs, or the wish is moot." It took far too long for the owl to guide them through twisting, featureless trails to the mouth of a cavern far overgrown with branches and upended roots. Like the canopy overhead, the trees had grown into a uniform tangle here, and Hige was surprised to see the old she-wolf wriggle through the solid mass of timber, much less Quent. The owl hooted jeeringly from a branch far above as Hige ducked between clinging roots and capturing twigs, earning a scratch and tear in his hoodie or two for his trouble. "Find your place down below; take your space in the flow!" the owl called from beyond the light-blocking tangle as he turned around to give Lebowski a hand, and then came the snap of open wings as the bird took flight in the still air.

"Well, at least that's the last we'll see of that particular annoyance." Hige stepped on a thin, pale twig as he turned back to the Yaidens and their guide. At least, he assumed it had been a hollow twig. If the light had been bad in the forest, it was next to pitch black in the cave. Hubb Lebowski blundered away from the group until Quent took him by the shoulder, and Hige was going more off smell and sound, himself. It should be safe enough in the dark. While hardly windy, the chill air had a bit of body to it under ground, more scents wafting through here than beneath the trees above.

"Do you hear something?" Toboe piped up suddenly.

"Just you, kid," Hige replied.

"No, I mean… sort of a buzzing noise." Hige hadn't paid it any attention, but there was a faint, constant hum in the background of the cavern, the click of chitin and the flutter of wings more solid than those of the ghostly bird's. Their guide had been worryingly silent since she had taken up the owl feather, and now Hige wasn't sure he'd heard so much as a rustling step through the debris from her since they'd wormed their way past the tangled, leafless plants blocking the cavern mouth. The young man turned back towards the entrance, trying to see if she'd turned back, hoping to catch her silhouette or smell. There was only the faint miasma of trees, dirt, and desiccated bone beyond the familiar scents of Lebowski and the Yaiden boys. That, and the not quite decaying, not quite natural coppery scent of corpse beetles. The last was getting stronger.

"Keep moving," Quent Yaiden grunted from up ahead, and the five made their way deeper into the cave. Or at least, Hige hoped that there were still five of them.

Hubb startled when the ground abruptly ended in a ledge along his chosen path; loose shale clattered down the steep edge before coming to land with a crunch some uncounted feet below. Then the buzz Toboe had detected came into sharp focus as beetles larger than a man's hand swarmed up from their pit.

"Get down!" Sergeant Yaiden collared the detective with his good arm, pulling him away from the edge and below the enormous flyers. Hige flailed as the insects skimmed his hairline, swatting blindly and praying he'd kept them from his face. He had only made contact with the scaly legs briefly, but that fleeting touch was more than enough to send numberless horror movie scenarios through his head. The rush of giant beetles seemed unending, and what flew through the air could just as easily come crawling over his feet, up his legs, and attack him from every direction at once. It was Toboe's turn to grab Hige by the arm and yank him sideways along the unseen lip of the cliff, as far from the swarm as they could get. Most of the beetles appeared to be heading for the cave entrance, but more than enough turned aside to dive-bomb at the men who'd blundered into their haven.

Hige's nose was assaulted with the malingering stenches of decay, blood, and crushed bug as the group tore blindly through the wave of riled insects, deeper into the cave and its treacherous footing. He didn't know how many times he'd slipped or overbalanced himself, depending on Toboe to keep heading forwards and not down into a pit, and the boy's grip on his own sleeve had jerked him one way or another too frequently for the need not to be mutual. The brunet wolf felt blood running from his cheek, his leg, and at least four places along his arms and hands. Nothing deep enough to worry about, but the predator in him worried that any trace of blood on the air would bring down the beetles. They weren't the toughest things Hige had ever tangled with by far, but they were plentiful and persistent in the way that only an underfed scavenger could be, and Hige dared not reveal any weapon but torn knuckles with Quent Yaiden's shotgun and Hubb Lebowski's stun-gun just ahead of him in the dark. Neither man dared risk a shot in the swarm, but if they had Toboe between them and a wolf before and behind, Hige wasn't quite so sure he liked the odds of hitting anything as much as Quent might.

Going over the edge was really inevitable, in the end. While the ledge they ran along sloped the group vaguely downwards, closer to the center of the cave, it never came even with the further exit. None of them were exactly watching where they were headed, anyway, so when Quent staggered at the end of the cliff face with Lebowski at his side, the boys plowed blindly into them, sending all four tumbling over the ledge.

"Get it off, get it off, get it off," Hige whimpered involuntarily, smacking relentlessly until her realized the "it" in question was Hubb Lebowski's leg. "Are they gone?"

"They didn't follow us down here," Lebowski said, dragging himself off Hige. "Strange, they sure weren't shy about popping up out of any hole."

"Everybody okay?" Toboe's voice wavered up as the group untangled themselves.

"As fine as I'll ever be," his father replied. Lebowski and Hige added in their own assurances, however sheepish the young wolf man's might have been.

"What about Winter?" Toboe at last asked the question that had been lurking in the back of Hige's head since they had entered this further darkness. Her smell was gone, though the brunet wasn't sure how much of that was due to the still air of the cave and its overlay of beetle.

"Guess she was smart enough not to tumble over the cliff," Hige attempted to put a positive spin on it. "I think we got separated with those bugs."

"Winter?" Toboe called. A fitful hum sounded above, but there was no reply from the old woman. The corpse beetles still did not fly down to them, distracted or instinctually afraid of what lay below. Or both.

"She'll catch up," the elder Yaiden reassured his son. As far as reassurances went, it didn't do much for Hige, and he wasn't sure how effective it was on its intended target, either.

The light was still faint enough that all he could make of the other three were their silhouettes, but they seemed sharper: Lebowski's tall, lean form was still stumbling, nose twitching to hold back a sneeze as the detective attempted to orient himself in this new darkness, full of dust and wolf hair, Quent had drawn into himself, a wounded bear in an unfamiliar den, and Toboe… the redhead was furthest from the cliff, squinting upwards as if to make out any sign of their lost guide, but it was Toboe rimmed in a hazy, bluish glow. The old wolf might be lost to them, but she had led them to the way out, the way to Blue. "We'll meet up soon," Hige added more optimistically than he felt, throwing an arm around Toboe's wiry shoulders. "Look, there's light up ahead, so she'll find us once we're out of this crazy forest."

He and Toboe took point this time, allowing the older men to follow along at a slightly more cautious pace. As far as Hige was concerned, speed was caution, down here. Better to reach the light source quickly and return to something resembling civilization. Maybe once they got out of this trippy nightmare of a forest, the old woman really would return to greet them, her shawl clutched with prideful self-possession about her shoulders in her original form, with an arch of a white eyebrow over whiskey-brown eyes for any grumbled comment Sergeant Yaiden might make about wolves.

It wasn't possible for drunkenness to pass from person to person through still air, was it?

The light wasn't from the exit, not directly. The bluish glow was semi-natural, but it emanated from the plants rising from the bottom of the cave rather than the twisting tunnel beyond them. These subterranean glowers weren't nearly as overgrown as the trees above them, a fact that Hige was definitely thankful for. Their forms were those of pale, giant Venus flytraps, with sticky, glowing juices dripping down the sensitive trigger hairs within the modified leaves. A few pods had already closed - around corpse beetles, or something larger. The forest roots overhead suddenly seemed very alive, and very heavy. There was no way for Hige to tell where one tree ended and another began… or if the roots didn't feed back into these ghostly flytraps, after all.

He shouldn't stare too long. "Come on, kid," he muttered to Toboe, and swore he didn't let out another proper breath until they saw sunshine.

It was overcast and chilly, it came down green from the glass dome, and it wasn't going to remain for very long this late in the day, but Hige swore that was the brightest ray of sun he'd ever seen as he emerged from the tunnel.

"She's not here," Toboe observed.

"But Blue will be." Hige relaxed his grip on the redhead's shoulders to turn it into a victory hug. "And Tsume and Kiba, too." Hell, he was feeling magnanimous after getting away from those bugs and plants and owl with his life. He wouldn't pick a fight with the two wolves right away. "You think we can just go up and knock?"

"Let me try Cher," Hubb Lebowski said, motioning the other three back. The detective spent entirely too long fiddling with his phone, and Hige's, before shrugging and doing what Hige had planned on - sometimes the simplest method was the most efficient after all, even if seemed a little stupid, once Hige's brain finally stopped spinning without a clutch.

Jaguara's troops might be searching for them elsewhere, but fortunately, it was Cher Degre-Lebowski who opened the heavy lock. She was obviously flustered, her whole frame shaking with nervous energy as the door rose, but some of the tension in her shoulders was relieved upon seeing that it truly was Hubb and Hige, at least.

"Hey, Doctor D," Hige greeted his mentor. In other circumstances, he might have wanted to stick around longer, tease and catch up, find a private moment to ask her advice about the wolf thing, or at least hang around long enough to see if her estranged husband figured out whether Hubb was putting both hands out to clasp hers in a polite handshake, hug her, or completely blow it, but the air was overpoweringly full of scents in the greenhouse after that dead forest, and none were stronger than that of Blue. "I'll catch you soon, boss."

"Hige?" The blonde's gaze followed him as he started past her, deeper into the greenhouse. When his name didn't stop him, she caught her protégé by the shoulder, dropping her voice. "We have a delicate situation; before see Blue and Tsume, I think you should know that they may not be exactly as you last saw them…"

"Are they hurt?" Toboe's bracelets jangled, and Hige was torn between rushing off towards that tortuous scent and hearing what else Cher had to say. Was that blood in the air? That was definitely blood. Someone was going to pay.

"They're… stable. Jaguara's gone, and Kiba with her, but unfortunately, that also means that so is everyone who knows how to deal with the transmutation," the doctor explained.

Hige released a sigh of relief and prepared to dart once more. "The wolf thing? It's okay; we already know about the wolf thing. Thanks, Doctor D!"

The closer he got to Blue's scent, the stronger the tang of old blood became, overwhelming the intoxicatingly sweet background miasma of the flowers. There were more than a few twists and turns around dividers; Hige tore straight through the flower stalks when possible. Blue was here, Blue had been hurt, and they were getting Blue out of here, now.

The scent of his fiancée led Hige to a cage. The steel bars had been gnawed on, and the shackles had been pulled through the bars and sawed at and beaten with some blunt instrument. Doctor D. had looked pretty frazzled, Hige finally noted; her hands were scraped and her nails torn when she'd grabbed his shoulder.

Inside the cage was a dark, blue-black wolf, its eyes a brilliant shade of cornflower.

Behind him, someone sneezed. "Somebody has got to explain the wolf thing to me, one of these days."


End file.
